i 

I 


tiifiililiiW ' 






J 



f 



THE 



Satires 



JUVENAL. 



TRANSLATED INTO 



ENGLISH VERSE ; 

BY 

CHARLES BADHAM, M. D, 

WITH 

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, 



Humani generis Mores tibi nosse volenti 

Sufficit. Sat. xiii. L. 159- 



LONDON: 

IPrinteD hi 8, % ®al<p2, ZooWn €omt f €i>mtett Hane T 

FOR MESSRS. LONGMAN, HURST, REES, OKM£, AND BROWN ; 
LAW; RICHARDSON; RIVINGTON ; LACKINGTON, 

ALLEN, AND CO.; LUNN ; DULAU. 

1814. 






\9 



* 



£ 



?; 



atibertfeement 



I advanced some considerable length in 
the following translation, with no design 
beyond the mere pleasure of the occupa- 
tion ; nor was it till I had written much s 
that the question arose whether what I had 
written might merit that painful and scru- 
pulous revision, which the thought of publi- 
cation would impose. I knew that Juvenal 
had been already several times translated ; 
with what degree of success, at this period 
of my undertaking, I did not enquire, for 



IV 

I was well persuaded that to all performan- 
ces of this kind a sufficient portion of failure 
must of necessity adhere, to exonerate 
from every reasonable charge of presump- 
tion the individual, who might choose to 
engage anew in the undertaking : a certain 
share of success might still, I thought, with 
no disrespectful sentiments towards the 
labors of others, be earned by my own. In 
this expectation, (which survived, I confess, 
some acquaintance with those labors,) if I 
should have erred, if I have thrown away 
the often painful application of more than 
two years, (for vast indeed is the difference 
between the delight of composition, and the 
irksome penance of revision, and correc- 
tion) the Critic, who gains an occupation 
usually, I believe, agreable, in proportion 
to what he apprehends to be the failure of 
the work he criticises, will surely not com- 
plain; the Printer laudably employed in 
his vocation will not complain; and least 



of all will those, if such there be, who con- 
sider me as an invader of their province. 

But I have already, in some measure, 
explored mj way : I have already been 
greeted as well by the encouragement of 
friends — Sj§*o-tov axqoct^cC — as by the sinistral 
croakings of those, who have unfortunately 
thought it necessary to be enemies : the fate 
of the book, which I now submit to the 
award of the Public, will necessarily in a 
few years, (and this is some consolation to 
those who hold the same opinions with 
myself concerning the craft of modern criti- 
cism) be settled independently of either. 

Part of this last sentence contemplates more imme- 
diately the circumstance of my having, two years 
since, printed and distributed a translation of the first 
Satire, which was attacked, (to be sure with as little of 
generalship as of good manners) in the Quarterly Review. 
The language in which the writer thought proper to in- 
dulge was certainly most offensive : He may now enjoy, 
if he likes it, the reflection that he has neither been able to 
suppress, nor (a year and eight months having since elapsed) 
in the smallest degree to precipitate the appearance of the 



VI 



work, which apparently cost him so much uneasiness. To 
have been the subject of unprovoked insult, as well as of 
substantial injury, might perhaps justify me in using some 
freedom of expression respecting the conduct of that 
publication ; as to the insult, however, the ruffian style of 
Criticism happily defeats its own end ; and as to the injury, 
I leave the remedy of it to time : to be av>jxooj Xoilofna.;, 
has seldom for the last 10 or 12 years been the privilege 
of an author. 

I cannot, however, but wonder that the Critical bench 
has not long since revised its penal code, seeing that the 
?ijpa Qavarov, of which it has been so prodigal, has so 
marvellously failed. They have gone on for many years 
with this plan, often agreably embellishing their capital 
punishments with a little preliminary torture, inflicted with 
much good will, and considerable address. The Public 
is almost sickened with literary impalements and cruci- 
fixions — yet offenders are more numerous than ever : ij 

TOtVUV BstVOTSpOV TJ TOUTOV &£0£ SUpSTSQV £(TTIV, Y} Tods y£ OodsV 

stthtxsi. a\\' H MEN TIENIA ava.yy.Yi ryv rokpav waps- 
yrovara. — AI A' AAAAl STNTTXIAI, opyy tcov uvQgWTTMv, 
«wj sxacmj tij yanyzTai ux' avv}x.s<rTOV tivo$ x.psiTTOvo$, s%a- 
youcri sig i" ou £ xjvSuvouj. Oratio Diodoti, Thucyd. L. in. 
c. xlviii. 

If the professional Critics will take the trouble to con- 
sider the above passage, (not I think inapplicable to the 
practise of their very useful calling) I flatter myself they 
will arrive at the consolatory conclusion of the Orator : I 
should be indeed unwilling to think that the unproductive 
infliction of pain is practised for its own sake. e<rn 
IIOAAHS ETH6EIA2 , og rig oit-rui tyj; uvfyuineias <po<recog, 
ogpLcupevw IIPOOTMflS tj npafaf wnoTpoirrp riva, «%5»v, >j 



PREFACE. 



The art of Translation every one will allow to 
be full of difficulties, and the specimens of success 
in it to be fewer than in almost any branch of lite- 
rature. Whether the subject be an Historian, an 
Orator, or a Poet, the difficulties of treating it are 
quite inconceivable till the experiment be made. — 
From causes inherent to the very nature of the 
undertaking, success cannot by any degree of atten- 
tion be rendered uniform, and accordingly it is not 
perhaps too much to say, that there are scarcely any 
versions of Latin or Greek writers, certainly not of 
Poets, within many degrees of general excellence. 
The best I apprehend to be full of conspicuous fail- 
ures"; and, perhaps, not a few passages even of Pope's 
Homer may be read with little pleasure, excepting 
that derived from the highly finished versification, 
which in the works of this great Master generally 
consists more in the surprisingly harmonious struc- 
ture, than even in the termination of his lines. 



Vlll 



After this avowal of an opinion respecting trans- 
lations in general, nobody will, I hope, apprehend 
that I am a stranger to the defects of my own. 
Setting aside the greater works of this class incorpo- 
rated into the body of English poetry, mine will, I 
expect, be found with the rest to partake of that 
mixed character, which, I believe, must belong more 
or less to this species of writing. 

The public decision concerning the merit of 
translated poets comes, I believe, at last to be 
founded on the success of the finer passages, of 
such as are best recollected of the original — an 
opinion which takes it indeed for granted that trans- 
lated Poetry is most acceptable to those who are 
not unacquainted with its original ; a point on which 
my persuasion is so strong, that I greatly doubt not 
only whether Juvenal, in English, can ever become 
a favorite, but even whether Virgil be so. 

It appears to me that the pleasure derived 
from translations is of that kind chiefly which 
arises from contemplating all successful imitation, 
a pleasure of which every one is sensible, when the 
version recovers to his memory the faint and the 
nearly forgotten traces of the original. I am pretty 
certain too, that on this subject all the preceding 
translators of Juvenal have been of my way of 
thinking, (otherwise to what purpose the well-mar- 
shalled approbation and seductive notes, in which 
they take the reader aside to agitate critical ques- 



IX 

tions, or to display their reading in citations from 
authors more difficult than Juvenal himself?) and I 
still incline to believe that ' one John Dry den, an 
obscure poet of the seventeenth century ',' as little 
expected/ as the facetious person who cites him 
would have a right to expect, (supposing he had 
engaged in the same labor,) to be read or to be ad- 
mired by the generality of the reading part of his 
countrymen. 

As to the degree of closeness to which I should 
adhere in my translation, the manner of its com- 
mencement, (which I have mentioned,) excluded at 
the outset, any particular rule. Whatever principles 
I have adopted, presented themselves as I went 
on, and guided me more in correction than in coni' 
position. I apprehend indeed, that no canons of 
this nature can well be laid down in translating 
poetry, or would have any chance of being acted 
upon, if they were. 1 It must happen, at one time, 
the closest version will be also the most spirited, 
at another the reverse. Yet it will probably be seen, 
that I have on the whole judged strictness of inter- 
pretation to consist to a greater degree with the other 
objects which a translator proposes to himself, 
than is usually thought ; and, accordingly, I have 

1 The very interesting and able volume on the « Princi- 
ples of Translation/ will assist much more in judging of the 
merits of this species of composition, than in the conduct of 
it. 



comprised the whole work in a much smaller num- 
ber of lines than has hitherto been done. 

But although I have endeavoured not to lose 
sight of this principle in general, I have never 
scrupled to abandon it, wherever the exigency of the 
case seemed so to require. I have also been scrupu- 
lous not to use any liberties with the author, except- 
ing such as are sanctioned by general practice, and 
are for the most part unavoidable; such as an 
occasional expansion of the original thought, or 
the introduction of an expletive line, chiefly with 
a view to make the transitions less abrupt, the con- 
nection of subjects more clear. As to disputed 
passages, it has been my practice to adopt what I 
considered to be the easiest sense they would bear. 

In compiling a set of notes for this work, my dif- 
ficulties were not few. Many subjects formerly 
very fit for investigation are now well understood ; 
common place learning is more general, and the 
readers of the classics are wisely more indifferent 
to the notes and digressions, of which the quantity 
seems to recommend certain editions to some pur- 
chasers. * Some of my own labors in this way will 

* The manner, in which the commentators sometimes follow 
each other, maybe compared not ill-naturedly to a custom said 
to obtain among the Arabians, who when they wish to lead a 
file of camels through deep water, select a quadruped remark- 
able for its length of ears, and for that species of courage 
which arises from insensibility to danger, to head the cara- 
van — to such a guide the camels willingly commit themselves! 



XI 

appear, I doubt not, a little erratic ; but what was 
to be done? If I had always written on the very 
same points as others, there are good natured per- 
sons who would have made this circumstance an 
objection, as depriving my work of the only chance 
of novelty. Readers, who are unaccustomed to the 
marches and countermarches of the modern school 
of illustration, may now and then be surprised, but 
I can only say, that it was in my power, strictly 
within precedent, if not within rule, to have alarmed 
them more. If I have detained them with an 
account of the fires of Rome, from which Umbritius, 
more fortunate, made his escape, they will pardon 
me, I hope, in consideration of my general forbear- 
ance. 

Lastly, on the subject of my versification, I beg 
to say, that while strength has been more particu- 
larly my object, I am yet painfully conscious that a 
number of feeble and unsightly lines have escaped 
expulsion; but the labor of correcting is endless, and 
it became a duty to fix an arbitrary and impassable 
limit to further solicitude on this subject. If my 
book should ever be reprinted, I shall not fail to 
improve my opportunity ; but, for the present, I 
feel myself compelled to pause. I am not, indeed, 
now conscious of pushing my labors on the world 
with an indecent haste, or without a due regard for 
that good taste which is so much diffused through 
society. Yet I could still employ many additional 



Xll 

hours, if they were afforded to me, in rendering this 
volume less unworthy of the favor for which it is a can- 
didate. But my experience of the changes and chan- 
ces of human life, and more than one painful inter- 
ruption, which has thrown aside the manuscript for 
months, seem to justify me in thus avoiding any 
longer delay in publication, and, at the same 
time, warn me to quit pursuits, to which inclination 
has perhaps too powerfully solicited, for other 
cares which constitute the proper business of my 
life. 



CONCERNING THE 

3Ufe anD JKHrtttngs 

OF 

JUVENAL. 



As our information concerning the lives of most 
of the classic authors of antiquity seldom depends 
on any express documents which they have left, 
and is for the most part deduced from collateral 
events and the meagre authority of dates and con- 
sulships, we need not be surprised that all which 
is recorded of Juvenal, in the brief account which 
passes under the name of Suetonius, should be so 
far from satisfying that curiosity, which a character 
so energetic, and of necessity so conspicuous, would 
naturally invite. The proper and more favorite ob- 
jects of the muse, if they do not conciliate the regard 
and earn the applause of their own age, have at 
least none of those qualities, which alarm jealousy 



XIV 



or stimulate revenge. Far otherwise is it with the 
historian of a turbulent, or the satirist of a corrupt, 
period of society, who, if at all formidable from 
their talents, must necessarily (provided they have 
the courage to avow their productions) attain a 
dangerous eminence among the public characters 
of their times. We may, therefore, well conceive* 
from the power of his compositions at this distance 
of time, what must have been the sensation pro- 
duced by the satires of Juvenal, when read by 
thousands who understood every line, every word, 
and entered into every allusion, and when many or 
most of the characters exposed in them were fa- 
miliar to the streets of Rome. 

Notwithstanding all these considerations, the 
exact period, during which Juvenal florished is far 
from being uncontested, or accurately settled. If 
he was born about the beginning of the reign of 
Claudius (A. D. 42.) and lived to be eighty years 
of age., which (not to dwell on his calling himself 
an old man in one of the satires, nor on the 
Epigram of Martial addressed to him in the 
reign of Trajan,) there is good reason to think he 
did; he must necessarily have seen the Roman 
empire under a great variety of masters (Empe- 
rors were then often short lived), and have wit- 
nessed the enormities of its capital through the 
successive reigns of Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitel- 
lius, as well as those of Vespasian, Titus, Do- 



XV 

mitian, Nerva, and Trajan, 



Noverat ille 

Luxuriam Imperii veterem, Noctesque Neronis. 

It may well, then, be a matter of surprise and of 
some perplexity in his history, that a character, so in- 
trepid, should have lived, as he is said to have 
done, till middle age before he wrote at all ; 
that he should pass over the horrible excesses 
of the reign of Nero, to expose more particularly 
those of Domitian's ; and that (with the exception 
of a line of reproach to Otho's memory for carry- 
ing a looking-glass to the camp) he should not have 
devoted a single passage in any of his satires to the 
memory of some of the most atrocious characters, 
that ever disgraced a throne ! 

Juvenal must have been 27 years of age, when 
Nero met with his well merited reward : it is true 
that the satirist has bestowed on the memory of 
this prince some just compliments and very natural 
reflections. True also that he has touched on his 
penchant for the treasures of his subjects, (Sat. x. 
15.) and for the persons of their sons, (x. 509.) 
and farther true that the advantages, which the 
youth of Rome derived during his reign from being 
scrofulous and deformed, 



Utcro pariter gibboque tumentes, 



XVI 

are very distinctly placed to his account : nor has 
he ungratefully omitted to commemorate the op- 
portunity, which this valiant prince afforded to his 
nobility of displaying their courage, in fighting with 
wild beasts, with Gladiators, or with one another, 
on the Arena — But still, the wreath which he fixes 
on the brow of Nero wants the freshness of the 
garland, which he has woven for Domitian ; and 
though he makes very merry with poor Claudius 
and his mushroom (v. 147. vi. 115. xiv. 330.), 
yet we hear nothing (perhaps Juvenal was then 
too young to notice them) of the atrocities of his 
reign, nor of those which disgraced the brief go- 
vernment of the detestable Vitellius. To the 
memory of Galba he seems to have been partial ; 
(ii. 104,) To Nerva and Trajan he never alludes, 
unless the beginning of the seventh satire, which 
has been claimed for each of them, belong to 
either. 

In none, however, of these or similar passages, 
does he decidedly speak like a man who had lived 
in the times alluded to : he seems, indeed, to have 
studiously misled us, inasmuch as all that he has 
any where said of any of the emperors might con- 
sist with their having lived a century before him, 
and no light whatever with regard to his own life 
or circumstances is afforded by any of the satires, 
in which allusions occur to those earlier reigns, 
under which he must necessarily have lived. We 



XV11 

must, therefore, be content with the very meagre 
information, That Juvenal, the greatest satirist of 
any age, was born in the small town of Aquinum, 
during the reign of Claudius, and died in advanced 
life, most likely under that of Adrian, but how or 
where, is utterly unknown, . 

Only one specific event of his life is well establish- 
ed ; namely, his visit to Egypt under Domitian, which 
is recorded by Suidas, and alluded to by himself 
(Sat. xv. throughout). This visit is commonly sup- 
posed to have been involuntary, and that he was 
exiled thither by Domitian, at the instance of Paris, 
a pantomime player, on whose preposterous abuse 
of influence he had reflected. There can be little 
doubt, that however feeble the pretence, Domitian 
must have gladly availed himself of it, in order to 
remove so troublesome and so bold an inspector. 
Others, again, have thought that Juvenal travelled to 
Egypt for improvement. This country had indeed 
been frequented on such motives, but it was in more 
distant times, and in a much earlier stage of human 
knowledge. The ancient fame of Egypt now lay 
buried with the ruins of Thebes, and the dilapidated 
statue of Memnon ; nor is it in the least probable 
that this country could any longer invite the inves- 
tigation of a polished people, who justly held the 
people of the Nile as a race of infatuated savages, 
I think it therefore most probable that Juvenal 
JltV. b 



y 



XV111 

went thither at the cost of the state, 4 Irati histrio- 
nis exul] which is the common opinion. 

Nothing whatever is known of his family, except 
that he was the son of a rich freedman, who gave 
him a liberal education, and bred him to the bar. 
The biographer adds, ' incertumjilius mi alumnus.' 1 

This fact, if it is a fact, is extraordinary, as he 
speaks with invariable scorn of the ■ Liberti' and 
the advancement of their children, and dwells with 
peculiar pride on the honor of being a Roman citi- 
zen ; indeed, the value he places on this distinction 
is so conspicuous and general, that it may well out- 
weigh the assertion of an unknown writer of his life, 
the authority of whose materials we are not able to 
decide. 

That Juvenal was never married we may fairly 
. infer from his sixth satire; or else, that he was 
married unfortunately. 

Among his contemporaries were Quintilian, 
Martial, Statius, Lucan, Seneca, Persius. 

It is difficult to conceive how any doubt can 
ever have been entertained respecting the personal 
character of Juvenal, and the excellence of his de- 
sign ; of Juvenal, who, whether he denounces the 
grosser vices, or exposes folly and hypocrisy ; whe- 
j ther he delights to enlarge upon the simplicity of 
/ former times, or probes the corruption of his own ; 
I whether he draws the picture of a cottage group, or 



XIX 

court, is always so plainly in earnest ; who, far 
from being a frigid declaiiner against vice, betrays 
every-where the resolute and indignant spirit of his 
own Lucilius, and the animation of a sincere friend 
to virtue. That he enlarged on disgusting topics, 
only with a view (however liable to exception) to 
make their turpitude so palpable and shocking, 
as to cover those who were addicted to them 
with confusion, is but a fair and charitable ex- 
planation, which, in contemplation of his general ^ 
character and design, we are bound, I think, ••• 
to accept. We are moreover to recollect, 
in discussing offences against delicacy, that tras 
is not like some of the higher virtues, referable to 
an immutable standard in all ages and countries, 
but a state of feeling ever fluctuating, destitute- of 
fixed limitation, and merely that, which shocks 
the general sense of our own times. The nqftptfers 
of his age must therefore be taken into the account, 
in reference to a freedom of expression whicfywould 
be intolerable to ours. Sometimes, indeed, it might 
be, and in the most offensive passage in all his 
works, it will occur to every one, that it was from 
design that our poet had recourse to peculiar coarse- 
ness of expression. How successfully ! for is it 
possible that any other sentiment than that of ab- 
horrence and disgust can ever have been suggested 
by it ? It really appears to me, that the great Sati- 
rist was so sensibly alive to the interests of virtue, 



XX 



as to be not only offended by crime, but shocked 
by impropriety. I have no doubt, that to his mind, 
the indecorous dress of the magistrate, the theatri- 
cal exposure of the nobles, were, as he represents 
them, subjects of humiliation and of regret. 

In the midst of a most profligate and degenerate 
city, this august reformer would appear to have sus- 
tained an highly important, although a self-assumed 
office, in holding up to his countrymen incessantly 
the alarming depravity into which Rome was fast, 
merging ; in denouncing vice of every kind, and 
fixing an indelible stigma on those who habitually 
pr-aetised it ; in respecting and claiming respect for 
virtue, inculcating both directly and indirectly re- 
verence for the Deity, insisting on personal good- 
ness, as the only claim to distinction, the only 
foundation for happiness ; and in pointing out to 
man, *'with the indifference of a superior being 
(as Mr. Gibbon beautifully expresses it,) the 
vanity /of his hopes and of his disappointments.' 
In a state where none any longer valued the 
name of a Roman, or felt an interest beyond the 
present hour, it was matter of pride to him to have 
been nourished on the Sabine olive, and to regard 
effeminate and corrupt foreigners with a love of 
country worthy of the severest times of his own 
* bearded Kings/ 

He was a true philosopher, without the fetters of 
a system, or the pride of making proselytes. His 



XXI 



own religious views were eminently superior, and 
though, like the sage, ' dulci vicinus Hymetto? he 
would not perhaps have shocked the prejudices of 
his country, by refusing to sacrifice a cock to JEscu- 
lapius, his own notions of the divine government 
were better worthy of times just beginning to dawn, 
perhaps inconsciously derived from them, and such 
as would have in all probability made him a willing 
disciple of the great preacher who was then calling 
the Pagan world from the altars of an unknown 
God. 

The merits of Juvenal as a writer of satire are 
such and so great, that he leaves all others of this 
class at a distance. 

Less sportive than Horace, he was an equal 
master of all the intricacies of the human heart, 
though, unlike to the bard of Venusium, who di- 
verted himself with the weaknesses, he applied 
himself to correct the wickedness, of human 
nature. Never so much himself as when he assumes 
the tone of indignation, apostrophises the virtuous 
founders of the republic, or pours down his invec- 
tive on some conspicuous criminal, he is yet singu- 
larly happy in his strokes of irony and of humour 5 
and in the skilful introduction of oblique and in- 
direct satire. The amiable feelings, indeed, have 
been denied, or sparingly conceded to Juvenal, and 
it must be allowed that his writings contain fewer 
passages, on which a claim to such a complexion of 



XX11 

character might be directly founded ; yet are they 
not deficient in many passages of much tenderness 
and sensibility. The severe, however, and the aw- 
ful, are plainly the leading features or his muse, and 
those in which the ascendancy of his genius is most 
conspicuous. That he is sometimes almost im- 
penetrably obscure, and on the whole, among the 
most difficult of the Latin Classics, arises mostly 
from the very nature of satire ; for here, as well as 
in the Comedy of the Antients, a variety of local 
institutions, and traits of antient usage, very im- 
perfectly known, must necessarily render the study 
of these writings far more difficult, and less in- 
teresting than of those productions, which speak 
not the local and confined idiom of the manners, 
but the universal language of the passions of man- 
kind. 

There is no Latin author who has been so often 
and so variously translated as Juvenal. A prose 
translation of a. poet would indeed appear to be a 
great absurdity, yet there are no less than three of 
these bald and insipid performances in English. 
Even for the purpose of facilitating an acquaintance 
with their originals, poetical versions are far to be 
preferred, as they endeavour to unite something of 
the stile and the beauties of an author with his 
meaning. Such versions also seem to avoid the 
objection of doing every thing for the learner with- 
out his own labor, for while they cannot in any 



xxm 

degree supersede the necessity of application, they 
supply a clue, which, by putting the student in 
possession of the general scope of his author, must 
necessarily- ceconomise his time. 

There is one prose version, however, of Juvenal 
which seems to require a more respectful mention, 
and which is in some esteem both on account of the 
general fidelity of the interpretation, and of the 
notes which are annexed to it. I mean that of Mr. 
Dusaulx in the French language. 

The translations of Holyday and of Stapylton, 
would not suffer much injustice in being classed 
with the former, for of poetry they are very com- 
pletely destitute. That of Holyday will, however, 
always maintain its claims to attention from the 
very full explanatory apparatus annexed to each 
satire. But Dryden has sufficiently exposed the 
strange fancy of rendering the Latin into the same 
number of English lines. The peculiar merit, in- 
deed, of the original, that brevity, which £ after 
retrenching whatever is superfluous, includes the 
principal thought, in a precise and vigorous expres- 
sion,' * ought certainly to be the main object in 
the view of a translator, but it is plainly not to 
be obtained after the manner in which Holyday in- 
tended to succeed. The great danger to which a 

1 Gibbon. 



XXIV 

translator of Juvenal is exposed, is, no doubt, that 
of feebleness and redundancy, but it is not thus to 
be avoided. 

Of the version called Dryden's, but a small part 
was executed by himself : he had the assistance of 
seven hands, all very unequal to his own, some 
very unworthy of such a confederacy. The part, 
3rd, 6th, 10th, and 16th, were by himself, two 
were executed by Tate, two by Charles Dryden. 
Of the remainder, one fell to the share respectively 
of Duke, Bowles, Stepney, Harvey, Long, Power, 
and Creech. The character even of his own parts 
of the performance is, I think, unequal to Dryden's 
reputation, and very far inferior to his Persius, 
which is remarkably spirited, and well merits the 
complimentary Prologue of Congreve. There are 
interspersed, indeed, throughout, redeeming pas- 
sages of great brilliancy, but these scintilla? some- 
times render the neighbouring darkness only more 
observable. 

One of his best passages is the following transla- 
tion of the well known and beautifully descriptive 
lines beginning 



In mllem Egeria descendimus, Sat. iii. 1. 



Into this lonely vale our steps we bend, 
I, and my sullen, discontented friend ! 



XXV 

The marble caves, and aqueducts we view, 

But how adulterate now and different from the true ! 

How much more beauteous had the fountain been, 

Ejnbellish'd with her first created green, 

Where crystal streams through living turf had run, 

Contented with an urn of native stone. 

Yet in the same satire occurs the following vile 
paraphrase, in the very worst taste of the times : 

The greasy gown, sully'd with often turning , 
Gives a good hint to say the man's in mourning ; 
Or if the shoe be ript or patches put, 
He's wounded, see the plaster on his foot. 

Mr. Tate has translated the second satire with 
an accuracy, the want of adherence to which we 
should have more than pardoned. 

The fourth is indifferently rendered by Mr. 
Duke, but does not deserve to be singled out as the 
worst of the performance. 

The fifth is not ill translated, as to faithfulness, 
by Mr. Bowles. 

In the sixth we again recognise the hand of the 
great master, who seems here to have written 

The seventh satire is by C. Dry den, the whole 
of it, well, and parts of it excellently done. The 
passages, respecting Tongilius and Quintilian, are 
very successful. 



XXVI 

Stepney, who in the eighth satire, makes the 
race horse 

* Print with his hoofs his conquest in the dust ;' 

unmercifully consigns an inferior animal of the 
species 

To turn a mill or drag a loaded life 
Beneath two panniers and a baker's wife ! 

Of Mr. Harvey, who undertook the ninth (and 
whom I can by no means agree to consider as the 
best of the associates) I remark that he made 
the most filthy passages, till then probably in 
existence, more foul, and the obscenities more ob- 
scene. 

We are now arrived at the tenth satire, con- 
cerning which, every thing is interesting. Here 
Dry den often deserts the original, and indulges 
throughout in great latitude of interpretation, yet 
finer lines than may be extracted from this poem 
are of no common occurrence : 

The cloven helm, the arch of victory, 
On whose high convex sits a captive foe, 
And sighing casts a mournful look below ! 

And again, 



XXV11 

Should some wild fig-tree take her native bent, 
And heave below the gaudy monument, 
Would crack the marble titles and disperse 
The characters of all the lying verse. 
For sepulcres themselves must crumbling fall 
In Time's abyss, the common grave of all. 

Or still more beautifully, 

Griefs always green, a household still in tears, "1 
Sad pomps : a threshold throng'd with daily biers, V 
And liveries of black for length of years. \ 

It is seldom that the triplet, which makes such a 
conspicuous figure in this translation throughout, 
comprises three such good lines — indeed, as em- 
ployed by these translators, it is usually a defor- 
mity. 

Priam falling at the altar is made with some 
quaintness, but still with much beauty, 

' A Soldier half, and half a sacrifice.' 

If in these passages, and a great many single 
lines, such as 

' With sores and sicknesses beleaguer'd round ' 

* The sleeping tyrant's interdicted door,' 



we recognise the pen of Dryden, it seems on 
the other hand unworthy of the great poet, to 



XXV111 



say of Xerxes that he ' had not a mighty penny- 
worth of his prayer;' of Nile that he ' was tired 
of carrying his waters so far;' or of Hannibal's 
picture, ' that it did not deserve a frame.' 

The eleventh satire was the work of Congreve ; 
it is loosely interpreted, and the obscene passages 
(as usual in this translation) improved. Indeed it 
is plain throughout, that the translators have indem- 
nified themselves for the necessity of suppressing 
words by dilating ideas; and that they have ac- 
cordingly made it more inflammatory than the 
original. 

The twelfth satire is Mr. Power's, I know not 
who would desire to rob him of the credit of it. If 
it has a good line it is the last : 

' Nor ever be, nor exerjind a friend.' 

Mr. Creech has done great injustice, and injury 
too, to the 1 3th, by slurring over the fine passages 
with which it abounds, and by foisting in dull com- 
mon places about Damocles and Phaeton. He has 
conspicuously failed in the highly finished picture 
of the self-inflicted torments of the guilty towards 
the conclusion of the piece. 

The younger Dryden translated the fourteenth, 
and Mr. Tate the fifteenth, satires. The former has 
nothing worthy of particular remark. Tate's is 



XXIX 

spirited enough, and upon the whole it is to him I 
should assign the second place of merit, 

— — ornatur lauro collega secunda. 

In this brief review of the different translators of 
the Roman satirist, it would be wrong to omit the 
mention of John Oldham, the contemporary and 
friend of Dryden : he was the first who attempted 
to accommodate Juvenal in a free paraphrase, to 
modern times, arid made the third and thirteenth 
satires the subjects of his attempt In some lines 
inscribed to his memory by Dryden, he pronounces 
upon his merits with the partiality of friendship in 
terms which posterity has certainly not ratified : 

For sure our souls were near allied, and thine 
Cast in the same poetic mould with mine. 

In his Preface, Oldham says, * I resolved to alter 
the scene from Rome to London, and to make use 
of English names of men, places, and customs, 
where the parallel would decently permit.' So that 
he set the example which Johnson so much im- 
proved upon : his versification, however, is rough, 
his parallels obscure, unhappy, and he is often very 
deficient in spirit. 

As Fate would hav't on the appointed day 
Of parting time, I met him on the way 



XXX 

Hard by Mile End, the place so fam'd of late 
In prose and verse for the great faction's treat : 
Here we stood still, and after compliments 
Of course, and wishing him good journey hence, 
I ask'd what sudden causes made him fly 
The once-lov'd town and his dear company. 

Such is the figure which Umbritius makes under 
the hands of Oldham. With much absurdity, he 
transfers the squabble for seats in the theatre, to the 
church. 

Turn out there, friend, cries one at church, the pew 
Is not for such mean scoundrel curs as you. 

Quando in consilio est adilibus fyc. assumes 
the following strange phraseology : 

What man of sense that's poor, e'er summon'd is 
Among the common council to advise 1 
At vestry consults when does he appear "\ 

For choosing of some parish officer, \ 

Or making leathern buckets for the choir ? V 

So much for parallels and Mr. John Oldham. 
By which, of all the processes which blind our Judge- 
ment, or modify our sincerity in the expression of 
it, J could Dry den have been influenced, when he so 
complimented — not the man, but his memory? 

I have seen a volume of much later date, in 
which all the satires of Juvenal are tortured in this 



XXX I 

way. Supposing materials to exist for such illus- 
tration, it were far easier to work those materials 
into original composition. Two conditions are evi- 
dently wanting for success in this perilous under- 
taking. 1st, Instances sufficiently close to those of 
the original to afford pleasure by that resemblance. 
Sdly, Instances sufficiently familiar. Johnson was 
in this respect particularly happy, nor is it unlikely 
that to the fortunate parallelism of his two promi- 
nent characters to those of Juvenal, we owe his ad- 
mirable satire on the vanity of human wishes. In 
his paraphrase of the thirteenth satire ? Oldham 
adopted instances then perhaps, (at least some of 
them) fresh in memory, but not calculated to strike 
posterity. 



Confer et hos veteris, fyc. Sat. xiii. 147". 

Compare the villains who cut throats for bread, 
Or houses fire, of late a gainful trade, 
By which our city was in ashes laid. 
Compare the sacrilegious burglary 
From which no place can sanctuary be — 
Which rifles churches of communion plate, 
Which good King Edward's days did dedicate. 
Think, who durst steal St Alban's font of brass. 
That christen'd half the royal Scottish race,— 
Who stole the chalices at Chichester, 
In which themselves received the day before— 
Or that bold daring hand, of fresh renown, 
Who scorning common booty ? took a crown. 



I 



XXX11 

Compare too, if you please, the horrid plot 
With all the perjuries to make it out, 

Or make it nothing, for the last three years 

Add to it Thynne's and Godfrey's murderers ; 
And if these seem but slight and trivial things, 
Add those that have, and would have murder'd kings. 

Thus far, in remarking on the productions of 
more distant times, I have incurred no risque of 
offence. With those of a more recent date, it is 
not for me to interfere — 

Escaping, therefore, from all such perils, and 
commending my work to the indulgence of the 
reader, I deliver it into his hands in the words of 
D'Alembert: " I should think myself happy in ob- 
" taining the suffrage of a small number of persons, 
" who, by their knowledge of the Nature of the two 
" languages, the genius of the original, and the true 
" principles of translating, are capable of estimating 
" the pains I have taken. With respect to those who 
" only believe they are, I have nothing to expect or 
" to demand from them. 

" The only favor I wish to receive from those 
" whom I acknowledge to be true Judges is, not to 
" confine themselves to the discovery of my faults, 
" but to offer me at the same time the means of cor- 
" recting them. Of all the injuries translators have 
" a right to resent, many of which I have already re- 
" marked, the principal is the manner in which they 
" have been accustomed to be censured. I dont 



XXX111 

" speak of those silly, vague, false criticisms, which 
" deserve no attention ; I speak of censure that is not 
" without grounds, and equitable in appearance. Yet 
" even this, I say, in subjects of translation, is not 
" warrantable. We may judge of -a free work with- 
" out reserve, and content ourselves with exposing 
" its faults in a just criticism, because the author was 
" master of his plan, of what he ought to say, and- 
" the manner of saying it ; but the translator is in a 
" state of constraint on all sides ; obliged to advance 
" in a narrow and slippery path, not of his own choos- 
" ing, and sometimes to throw himself on one side 
" to escape a precipice ; so that, to criticise upon 
" him with justice, it is not sufficient to show he 
" has committed a fault, he must be convinced 
" that he could have done better, or as well, with- 
" out so doing : In vain will it be to reproach him, 
" that his translation wants a rigorous justness, if 
" it cannot be proved, that he could preserve this 
" justness without ceasing to be agreeable ; in vain 
" will it be to pretend, that he has not given the 
" full idea of his author, unless it can be shown, 
" that this was possible, without rendering the copy 
" feeble and languid ; in vain will it be to accuse 
" his translation of harshness, if another is not sub- 
<£ stituted in its stead, more natural and forcible. 
" To correct the mistakes of an author is merit in 
" a common critic, but is a duly in the censor of 
" a translation. 

Juv. c 



XXXIV 

" It is not to be wondered at then, if, in this 
kind of writing, as in all others, good critics 
should be as scarce as good compositions. And 
why should it be so? Satire is so very con- 
venient ! The generality are lavish of it to show 
their acuteness. ! Tis true learning alone that 
gives us a security, I will not say for being 
esteemed, but I will say, for being read." 



3ftt*ex. 



Satire i. 

PAGE. 

Motives and Objects of Satire • • 5 

Satire ii. 
Hypocrisy 32 

Satire hi. 
Rome • 54 

Satire iv. 
The Turbot of Ancona 84 

Satire v. 
A Roman Dinner • • 105 

Satire vi. 
Women » 130 

Satire vn. 
Patronage — Literary Prospects • • • • 187 

Satire viii. 
Hereditary Distinctions ••• • £17 

Satire ix. 
The Complaint 243 



XXXVI INDEX. 

PAGE. 

Satire x. 
Human Wishes 258 

Satire xi. 
The Invitation 297 

Satire xii. 
Shipwreck 317 

Satire xiii. 
Penalties of Guilt 333 

Satire xiv. 
Example 359 

Satire xv. 
Cannibals 386 

Satire xvi. 
Military Privileges 400 



Sttgument 



The following Poem has been called an Introduction: 
while, however, it fully and excellently answers that pur- 
pose, it is as much a satire as any which succeed, and con- 
tains a very powerful and spirited sketch of the dissolute- 
ness of Rome. The degeneracy of poetry and of taste j 
women disordering all the scheme of society by the in- 
fraction of the decencies of life ; treacherous guardians, 
informers, poisoners ; together with an universal prevalence 
of servility, prodigality, gluttony, desertion of dependents, 
&c. are alleged as so many provocations for the assump- 
tion of the satiric pen. 

I know not of any adequate reason for supposing this to 
have been composed subsequently to the other satires, and 
merely as an introduction to them. 

Dusaulx gives the following titles, in place of argu- 
ments, to the satires. 1 . Why he writes. 2. Hypocrisy. 
3. Rome. 4. The Turbot. 5. The Parasites. 6. 
Women. 7. Men of Letters. 8. Mobility. 9. Pro- 
tectors. 10. Wishes. 11. Luxury. 12. Return of 
Catullus. 13. The Deposit. 14. Example. 15. Su- 
perstition — Now the truth is, that there are not more than 
four satires, in which any thing like unity is preserved. 
Juv. A 



It will save much trouble to the reader, and for this at 
least I am secure of his gratitude, to present him with a 
List of Persons and Places at the commencement of each 
Satire, leaving the Notes to miscellaneous matter. In draw- 
ing up these Dramatis Persona 1 , I shall devote but a line 
or two to each, reserving for a longer annotation any indi- 
vidual of whom it seems desirable to hear something more. 



PERSONS AND PLACES 
MENTIONED IN THE SATIRE. 



PERSONS. 



CODRUS, a bad poet, perhaps the same mentioned in the 
third satire. 

Fronto (Julius), a Roman Nobleman, who patronized the 
poetasters of the day ; often mentioned by Martial. 

Lucilius. See the note. 

Sylla, the celebrated Dictator of Rome, and the first 
author of cruelties and proscriptions, improved upon 
by his three disciples, as Juvenal calls them, Sat. n. 

Crispinus, an Egyptian slave, raised to wealth and distinc- 
tion by Domitian. 

Matho, an indifferent pleader ( full of sound and fury sig- 
nifying nothing.' Bucca, as he is called in Satire xi. 
Ostentation not answering, his affairs went to ruin, and 
he recovered them by the florishing practice of an. 
informer. 

Cams (Mettius), a noted Informer. See Tacitus, Hist, 
iv. 50. 



Bebius Massa, another, and a worse : ' optimo cuique 
exitiosus.' Tacit. 

Latiuus, a distinguished Mime in the corps de ballet of 
Domitian. 

Thymele ; whether his wife or not, is uncertain. A lady 
certainly who was much devoted to him. 

Marius. See the note. 

Locusta, a woman, who prepared poisons in Rome ; and 
whom, when Agrippina determined to take off Clau- 
dius, she consulted ' de genere veneni.' ( Deligitur 
artifex talium vocabulo Locusta, nuper veneficii damnata 
et diu inter instrumenta regni habita.' Tacitus. 

Pallas, a freedman of Claudius, and his great favorite. 
To whom, (at the representation of the Emperor of his 
great merit in discovering the intermarriage of Roman 
women with slaves) the Senate voted a large sum of 
money, and the thanks of the public. ' Quod regibus 
Arcadiae ortus veterrimam nobilitatem usui publico post- 
poneret, seque inter ministros principis haberi sineret ? ' 
—Claudius replied : ' Contentum honore Pallantem 
intra priorem paupettatem subsistere ! ' — A very amus- 
ing farce, mutually understood by the performers ! 

Tigdlinus. See the noje. 

Mavia, Procideius, Gillo, Cluviemis, Coryinus — unknown. 



PLACES. 

Canopus; situated on one of the mouths of the Nile 
(hence called Canopicus) not far from Alexandria : a 
place infamous for its depravity. 

Lugdunum, Lyons : at the confluence of the Rhone and 
the Soane.. A florishing Roman colony, where there 



was an altar erected to Augustus. The capital of Gal- 
lia Lugdunensis. 
Gyarus, or Gyara ; a barren island in the JEgean sea. 

See the note. 
Cales, or Calenum ; a town of Campania, situated in a 

district famous for its wines. Horat. Od. iv. 12. 14. 

i. 20. 9. 
Laurentum, a town of Latium, not far from Ostia. 
Via Flaminia. The most ancient of the roads from 

Rome; which went from that city to Ariminium, 

through Etruria. 



attre i. 



That Theseid still ! and is there no resource ? 
Shall Codrus, with diurnal ravings hoarse, 



V. 1. That Theseid still! The hardships of attending 
poetical recitations had become by this time so considerable, 
that the great men of Rome were in a manner compelled, on 
pain of being thought indifferent to letters, to open their 
houses for the reception of the poets' audience ; and by their 
own attendance, and that of their dependents, to assist in 
forming it. See Pliny's Epistles and Sat. vu. Not a few, 
however, would look for gratuities of a more solid kind ; and, 
as the cost of satisfying such expectations would by no 
means add to the attractions of these reading parties, it was 
certainly no ill thought of Maculonus (Satire vn.) to pay 
them back in their own paper currency ; 
lpsefacit versus. 

That the titles of these compositions have survived their 
authors, they may thank Juvenal, who lays under more consi- 
derable obligations in another satire some equally distin- 
guished scribes, by conjoining with their own the names of 
their productions ; to which circumstance only is it due that 
posterity has heard of the 

Alcyonem Baechi, Thebas et Terea FaustL 



6 Sat. i. Juvenal. v. 3 — 12. 

Shall whining elegies my peace invade, 
And plays — that never, never can be play'd ? 
Shall Telephus, my life's perpetual curse, 5 

Pass, unrequited with a single verse ? 
Or huge Orestes, where, (alarming sight !) 
On no fair margin of reviving white 
The eye can rest, but ink and blackness all, 
One maze perplext — one complicated scrawl ! 10 
The grove of Mars — the caves, where loudly roar, 
Grim Vulcan's forges on Catania's shore, 

The pieces here mentioned were, it seems, intended for the 
theatre. More productions of this class^ it is probable, have 
failed, than of any other, both in ancient and in modern times. 
Yet, however justly Juvenal might quarrel with the abuse of 
the practice of recitation, the iEneid was, in all probability, 
by its means, equally with the Theseid, made known to the 
exulting country (ovanti patries) of its immortal author; of 
whom, on such an occasion, he 'might have said, with some- 
thing less of hyperbole than of Statins, 
Fregit subsellia versu. 

V. il. Tlie grove of Mars. The mythological fables 
mentioned in the succeeding lines give occasion to remark 
the happy vein of ridicule with which Juvenal touches upon 
such subjects, and which he delights to introduce as if con- 
scious of his talent for playing them off to advantage. It is. 
one of his peculiar excellencies, as indirect and quite unlooked- 
for strokes of sa tire are others. 

The cracking of the marble columns by the concussion of 
so many voice* (adsiduo lectorej is well imagined ; and the 
verbal irony conveyed in the word pellicula must not be over- 
looked, though it cannot be translated— FeZZws would have 
left the fleece in possession of all its consequence. 



v. is — 30. Sat. i. Juvenal, 7 

My very old and tried good friends are these- 

What winds are stirring, from the whispering breeze 
Up to the wintry blast that sweeps the sky j 15 

What ghosts are scourged by JEacus— - -and why ; 
From shores of Colchis, how in days of old 
A daring robber filch'd the fleece of gold ; 
How warring Centaurs just like pebbles fling -j 
Uprooted oaks- — are tales which hundreds sing : > 
Tales which in Fronto's groves for ever ring ! J 
Which split the columns of his sounding halls ; 
And to their basis shake the marble walls ! 
On themes like these your expectations rest, 
Dear to the worst of poets, and the best. 

We, too, were once at school, and threw away 
Much good advice on Sylla every day, 26 

By us assur'd, in private would he keep, 
'Twas certain he'd enjoy much sounder sleep. 
While bards thus swarm, vain clemency it were, 
Paper, so sure to perish, still to spare ! 30 



V. 23. We, too, were once at school. ' We too have our 
pretensions to be heard. We have gone the round of rhetor- 
ical exercises, &.c.' Of these, the usurpation of Sylla would 
naturally furnish an ample subject in the time of Juvenal. 
While the poetical themes were all (as our author complains) 
of a mythological kind, those of the schools seem to have 
been derived from striking passages in the Roman history : 
the Punic war was one of them, and, no doubt, a favorite 
one. Thus Hannibal is made the curse of the Roman school- 
master with excellent etfect in Sat. vn. 



S Sat. i. Juvenal. v. 31 — 38. 

Yet where Th'Auruncan erst with sounding thong 
Lash'd his fleet coursers at full speed along, 
Why of that plain the perils I pursue, 
(Happy might I partake its glories too) 
First let me tell — when to the marriage rite 35 
The powerless eunuch fears not to invite ; 
When Msevia courts the onset of the boar, 
And loves to hear the stricken monster roar ; 



V. 31. Yet where Th'Auruncan. Concerning the merits 
of Lucilius (who was born 147 years A. C. at Sinuessa, and 
who composed 36 satires, some fragments of which remain) 
three important opinions, delivered by critics whose compe- 
tence cannot be questioned, are still in existence. 

Those of Horace and of Juvenal seem not to have been 
substantially different — that of Juvenal we find, at the end 
of this satire, in which it must be confessed that he praises 
not so much the poet as the man. 

Horace also assigns to Lucilius as his principal excellence, 
an intrepid spirit in attacking the vicious of his age. — A tem- 
perament so little suitable to finished composition, that it seems 
to warrant the expressions which he uses in delivering his 
opinion of the writings of the first satirists of Rome. 

We learn from Quintilian that some persons were so par- 
tial to Lucilius, in his days, as to prefer him, not only to 
the later writers of satire, but to all writers whatever. He 
dissents, however, equally from them, and from the less 
favorable judgment of Horace. Add to these the memorable 
expression of Persius, ' Secuit urbem,' and we shall be left 
but little doubtful of the real character of the lost satires of 
Lucilius, 



v. 39 — 44. Sat. r. Juvenal. 9 

When he, by whom my earliest beard was mown, 
Could challenge senates with his wealth alone ; 40 
From Nile,— aye from Canopus — when a slave, 
Crispinus, comes the sneers of Rome to brave, 
Recovering as he goes, with awkward air, 
The purple robe he knows not how to wear, 



V. 43. Recovering as he goes. I believe I have given this 
affair of the robe correctly, although the phrase ' hutnero 
revocante Lacernas ' has perplexed the commentators. 1 con- 
ceive that the Egyptian merely wore his robe aivkwardly and 
suffered it to slip from his shoulders, (this perhaps on 
account of the heat which made him loosen the latchet or 
cord that confined it) and hence that he was obliged ' revo- 
care' to recover it as he walked along. — In what manner he 
cooled his hand or his rings, none, I suppose, will venture to 
decide, but the traits are so personal, that on the first pub- 
lication of this satire, the individual meant would be known 
in an instant — the same verb ventilo recurs in another sense 
in Satire iii. ' Cursu ventilat ignem ' blows up the fuel (in 
the chaffing dish) by running. The refrigeration of the hand 
of Crispinus was, I am inclined to think, performed by his 
own lungs, and can fancy I see him engaged by turns in the 
double operations described above — both of them fit subjects 
for caricature. 

I subjoin the substance of a note of Dusaulx's. The 
Romans had three sorts of rings. 1. Those which distin- 
guished the rank of the wearer; 2. Marriage rings, and, 3. 
Chirographi or seals. From wearing one on each hand, they 
came to wear one on each finger, and then one on every joint. 
Their establishment of rings was so large that (says Lam- 
pridius) Heliogabalus would as soon have thought of wear- 
ing a shoe twice as the same^J ring. For more concerning 



10 Sat. i. Juvenal. v. 45—68. 

Or blows his reeking fingers, all beset 45 

With summer rings, the lightest he could get — 
Thus for the scourge while vice or folly cries, 
To write, and not write satire, might surprise. 

For who so well to crimes hath steel'd his breast, 
That he can bid the rising passion rest, 50 

When past him glides the splendid palanquin, 
Where cushion' d Matho at his ease is seen ? 
Or his, whose whisper slew a wealthy friend, 
Whose venom shall to swift destruction send 
All that remains, tho' small the remnant be, 55 
Of Rome's retrench'd and maim'd nobility ! 
Whom Carus bribes, whom Massa trembling views, 
Whom with a female friend, Latinus woos ! 
When some the claims of more than kindred earn 
By great deservings ! — they whose fortunes turn 60 
(Thy fondest hopes laid prostrate in the dust) 
On some old Beldam's execrable lust ! 
With nice discernment of each favorite's skill, 
She writes, kind dame ! her equitable will : 
His well-earn'd tythe stout Proculeius gains, 65 
The rest repays athletic Gillo's pains, 
And cost of blood.— The wretch that did not see, 
Until he felt the snake, less pale than he : 



rings for different seasons, see Pliny Hist. Nat. 33. 1. The 
passage about the rings might be more literally rendered 
Or blows his hand, with the Gem's ampler mold 
Unfit to cope— which sweats with Summer Gold. 



v. 69 — 76. Sat. i. Juvenal. 11 

Or they that to Lugdunum must repair 

And try their doubtful skill in rhetoric there. 70 

O ! what emotions in my bosom strive, 
When I behold the throngs that rudely drive 
Thro' passive crowds some scoundrel's path to clear, 
Rich with the spoils of orphans in the rear ? 
When Marius, sentenc'd by a vote inane, 75 

(For what is infamy if wealth remain ?) 

V. 69. Or they that to Lugdunum, Caligula, as Suetonius 
informs us, instituted games at Lyons ; the competitors were 
exercised in Greek and Roman declamation. It remained to 
the vanquished to place a wreath on the brow of their success- 
ful rivals, and to pronounce a panegyric upon their merits, 
while those, whose written compositions were disapproved, 
had to expunge them with their tongues, or to be merged in. 
the Rhone. 

Dusaulx would explain the confusion of the speaker on 
other grounds ; that Lyons, being a very florishing place, 
the rendezvous of the deputies of Gaul, much frequented 
by the Romans on commercial adventures, and abounding 
with orators (Facunda Gallia) of its own — it would require 
no small share of confidence to rise in such an assembly. — ! 
But why should Juvenal go so far out of his way for this 
figure ? — Roman assemblies were much more august — the 
other must be the right interpretation. 

V. 75. When Marius. Marius Priscus had been Procon- 
sul of Africa, and on his return from that government was 
obliged to submit to a trial at the instance of his plundered 
subjects, ' quos discinxerit ' whose very zones, Juvenal face- 
tiously tells us (Sat. viii. 120.) he had taken from them. He 
obtained, however, from the emperor, the favor of select 
Judges (such they indeed were, since the historian Tacitus 



12 Sat. i. Juvenal. v. 77 — 86. 

Enjoys the wrath of Heaven, and drinks e'en 

more 
And better wine in exile than before ! 
Go, conquering province, and lament the cost 

Of thy successful cause — far better lost ! 80 

Shall not Venusium's lamp be well employ'd 
On deeds like these i or shall we still be cloy'd 
With tales of Labyrinths where monsters low, 
To Diomed for thrice-told stories go ; 
Still shall Herculean toils the poet deem, 85 

And wings of wax, his most auspicious theme ? 



with Pliny, the consul, were of the number) and the fol- 
lowing passage will help us to their opinion of the im- 
peached. ' We, being assigned by the Senate as counsel for 
the Province, thought it our duty/ says Pliny, ' to tell the 
house, that the crimes alleged against him were of too 
atrocious a nature to go to an inferior court : for he was 
charged with venality in the administration of justice, and 
with taking money to pass sentence of death on persons 
perfectly innocent.' The same author gives a long and deep- 
ly interesting account of the trial, which lasted three days, 
and of which the issue was, that Marius was condemned to a 
heavy pecuniary fine, and to be banished from Italy. To 
such a character the loss of country would be nothing, and 
accordingly the satirist represents him perfectly at his ease 
in the enjoyment of his iniquitous gains. 

V. 86. And wings of wax. Vid. Ovid. Met. viii. The 
wings of Icarus were only too good, for soaring too near to 
the sun, they melted, and he fell into the Icarian sea, 

Vitreo daturus 

Nomina ponto. 



v. 87—92. Sat i. Juvenal. 13 

When her vile Lord, th'adulterer's wealth to gain, 
(From which obtrusive laws the wife restrain) 
Will scan on proper hints, the roof, the floor, 
Doze at his cups, with wakeful nostril snore ; 90 
When he gets high command, whom stalls bereft 
Of all the Lands his frugal sires had left ; 

V. 91. When he gets high command. The Romans were 
as much addicted to the pleasures of the stable and of 
the course as ourselves — so indeed were the Greeks. — In 
the 'Clouds' of Aristophanes, there is a scene in which 
this propensity is very happily ridiculed. Old Strepsiades 
is introduced lamenting the distresses to which his sou's sta- 
ble attachments perpetually expose him ; the son, asleep in 
the back ground, proving by abrupt exclamations that he is 
still dreaming of horses. 
2TP. aAA' ov Swapou SsiXocios soosiv' Saxvoy^evos 

vi(o 7"7js Sairavys xai ryg parvus, xai ruiv xgscvv 

Slot rovrovi toy vlov o Ss xoy^v eyaov, 

'iTfltaXfi'ttt.i T£ XOU %'JVWglxeV£TM, 

Ovs^ottoXbi 0' htitovs. 

Puer Automedon nam lora tenebat, Sfc. 

This passage has a difficulty which has long exercised the 
commentators. Automedon was the charioteer of Achilles. 
Fuscus (if he were the person intended) was the charioteer of 
Nero. Probably therefore, ipse is the emperor, the implied 
representative of Achilles. This opinion appears to be very 
just, and it well interprets the lines as allusive to the indecen- 
cies of which Nero was guilty in the affair of his favorite 
Sporus. 

Thus Juvenal has ironically given the name of one of the 
heroes of the Iliad (in the 4th Satire) to Domitian-.fr air ad 
Atridem. And of another (in the 10th) to Tiberius— vktm 
ne pesnas exigat A] ax. This seems to be a similar passage. 



14 Sat i. Juvenal. v. 93 — 104, 

Whose well-match'd steeds on the Flaminian way 
This new Automedon would oft display— 
Whose skilful hand thTmperial car would guide, 95 
While its base Master woo'd his Monster-Bride ! 

Might not the tablets now in ev'ry street 
Be fill'd with horrors, when some wretch we meet 
Aping of soft Maecenas every air, 
Borne by six slaves and swung in open chair ; 100 
To whom a few short lines, authentic made 

By a stol'n seal, th' inheritance convey'd • 

Some well-born Matron, ready to infuse 
The toad's rank venom in Calehum's juice, 

V. 100. Berne hy six slaver,. The litter seems to have 
been quite similar to the palanquin of the East. Cicero says 
that Verres made use of one superbly decorated, and of which 
the pillows were stuffed with Roses ; it was also octophorus, 
borne by eight men, six being the usual number. A sort of 
sedan chair, sella gestatoria, which two men could carry, was 
in use among the Romans of more slender fortune ; but though 
the word here used is cathedra, the machine could not have 
been such a chair, because it is mounted ' sexta cervice.' 
There must have been a seat in the litter, when its occupant 
did not chuse to recline. In the 3rd. Satire, the rich man 
so carried reads or writes in his progress through the streets. 

V. 102. From a stol'n seal. * Gemma uda.' The engraved 
stones kept for the purpose of authenticating the more im- 
portant transactions of their possessors were usually depo- 
sited in some place of security. In the 1 4th Sat. we meet 
with the sard ' loculis quee custoditur ehurnis.' Whereas the 
common signet was worn on the hand— every body has heard 
of the frog of Maecenas. 

V. 104. The toads rank venom. Of Locusta we shall hear 



v. 105 — 106. Sat i. Juvenal. 15 

And hold herself the cup, with torment stor'd, 1 05 
To cool the thirst of her confiding Lord ! 

again. She was consulted by the affectionate wife of Clau- 
dius about the cooking of the mushroom, 
Post quern nil amplius edit. 
Also by Nero, when he was contriving his brother's 'epilepsy: 
In short, her reputation was so great, and her services so 
considerable, that she was long numbered, says Tacitus, 
' Inter instrumenta regni.' Modern naturalists recognise no 
poisonous species of toad ; even the most formidable of the 
species, to appearance, that of Surinam, is said to be harm- 
less ; but the belief of the ancients on this matter was all 
but universal. Pliny is express on the subject ; and however 
liable to objection his testimony might be, those of Aetius 
and Dioscorides (the latter of whom lived in these very times, 
from Nero to Vespasian) are far otherwise. Aetius describes 
two kinds of this reptile, I. xuxzo; ij affoyyoc ; 2. tpwvr^r/.o;. 
The latter was probably the frog, as well from the epithet, 
as that he ascribes deleterious powers only to the former. 
Would the reader wish to know the symptoms which follow 
such a draught as that mentioned in the text ? I transcribe 
them from the Alexipharmaca of Dioscorides, siutpsfsv- oioyj- 
jxara cwpatros (a common effect of poison) psta, caworrffos 
stft'tetau.evyjs' hcffvostv ncci SvctujSicc oSuosvai to crtotxa, noti Xvy- 
po$ autoi; eirsrou, snots h y.cci <n?s%y,a.ros airgoccigsro; sxxgi- 
ctlc (this last is a symptom which sometimes attends hydropho- 
bia) ; the remedies, which he recommends as successful, are, 
emetics, copious draughts of wine., spiceries and exercise; he 
also adds, that it is easy to discern from what is vomited, 
whether a person has been poisoned by the toad. 

The introduction to this book is very interesting, and 
loudly proclaims the times in which it was written. The 



16 Sat. i. Juvenal, v. 107—112. 

With deeper skill than sage Locusta fraught, 
Her simple friends how often has she taught 
To carry forth the livid husband's bier, 
Nor mind the muttering crowd — nor seem to hear ! 
So wouldst thou prosper ? — merit first the jail ; 1 1 1 
Let Gyaras her worthless subject hail ; 

reader is warned of the various ways by which food or 
wine may be poisoned, and how the taste or smell of the 
drugs may be disguised ; he is told that he may be poi- 
soned £V GlVOl$ CKAYj^OlC, 7) Z,W[J,Ol$, 7} BV yXVKSl, Yj £V psXiK- 

qarw, yj sv yyXois, tj tpccxcu, tj ccXfiroig. In short, he must 
be more sagacious than a rat to escape from such multi- 
plied chances of destruction. He is advised never to eat 
in a hurry, to avoid all intense flavors of sweet, sour, or 
saline ; to drink slowly and circumspectly if§ otrs^wy fuj 
ifowtrfii, attending to the quality. Antidotes are recommended 
in profusion, all perhaps of as much use as the Arjuvioc, 
cfgxyi;, the Terra Lemnia, (red clay) which appears in the 
list. 

Mention is also made under this head, of the compound 
celebrated by Juvenal, Mithridate : 

Pontica ter victi medicamina Regis. 

V. 112. Let Gyarce her worthless, Sfc. Gyarus; Gyara, 
hod. Joura. ' There is not,' says Mr. Tournefort, ' a more 
dismal place in all the Archipelago. We found nothing but 
huge field mice, perhaps of the race that forced away the in- 
habitants, as Pliny reports. Joura is at this day entirely 
abandoned. We saw there three ghastly shepherds, who had 
been starving ten or twelve days, &c. It is twelve miles round.' 
Vide Tournefort. Voyage au Levant, vol. II. where there is a 
bird's eye view of the island. The Romans sent some of their 
troublesome persons out of the way, under the color of a 



v. 113—116. Sat. i. Juvenal. 17 

For probity amidst applauses pines 
And gains ten thousand friends — but never dines. 114 
Feasts, villas, lawns, the high-wrought vase of gold, 
With goats emboss'd, to crimes, to crimes are sold! 

small appointment, to a specious exile in Egypt, Africa, or 
Spain. But convicted criminals were sent to shift for them- 
selves on some barren rock in the Archipelago, or elsewhere, 
such as the island above named, Seripho and others (Sco- 
pulosque frequentes Exulibus magnis, Sat. xiii. 245). Such 
too was Planasia, near Corsica, whither Augustus sent 
Agrippa Posthumus ; and Patmos, to which St. John was 
banished from Ephesus by Domitian, and where, according to 
some of the Fathers, he wrote his gospel, of which the date, 
agreeably to their account, must nearly coincide with that of 
these Satires, (see Whitby, Preface to St. John's Gospel.) 
The two succeeding lines are another attempt (none can suc- 
ceed fully with such a passage) to render the ' Probitas 
laudatur et alget' of the original, 

For Probity , while all the world commends, 
Shudders, and starves — amidst her thousand friends. 

V. 116. The goat was carved or engraved on cups, as 
the great enemy to vines. The well known lines of Ovid, 
' Rode, caper vitem,' SfC derived from a well known Greek 
epigram on the same subject, afford a further illustration. 

Kijv ps <pxyys titi pi^av, opcvs stt K<x,§ifopo§rj(rco 
6<r<rov situnteurou croi, ?%ays, Quopavw. 

As the goat was the great vine-destroyer, the sacrifice of 
him to Bacchus was well judged, and the connection of this 
festival of Bacchus with the name and origin of tragedy is 
known to every one. 

Juv. B 



18 Sat. I. Juvenal. v. 117 — 1S9. 

Who, who can sleep, when from the husband's side 
His own vile father lures the venal bride, 
"When infamous espousals blast the sight 
On which insulted Nature's curses light, 120 

When boy-gallants, — O should the Muse deny, 1 
Mere indignation shall the verse supply > 

Such verse as Cluvienus writes — or I ! ) 

Down from that moment when Deucalion spread 
His hasty sails, and to the mountain fled, 125 

There breath'd awhile, and bless' d his little prow, 
While whelming torrents swell'd the floods below : 
What time the stones to warm with life began, 
And Pyrrha show'd the naked sex to man, 
Whate'er to man belongs, our page employs, 1 30 
His wishes, fears, resentments, hopes, and joys. 

And when did vice so florish and abound, 
Or lust of Gold, since Time's eternal round ? 
When did such dire infatuation fly 
To the swift Mischief of the falling die ? 135 

Few now for purses care, or lost or won, 
Made by a throw, or by a throw undone, 
They stake the chest ! — see how each valiant knight 
Snatches his arms, impatient for the fight : 

V. 138. They stake the chest. 

Preelia quanta illic dispensatore videbis 

Armigero 

I had translated this passage in the sense that the steward 
or person who took care of the chest got into quarrels from 
his unwillingness to pay his master's losses — against this sense 



v. 140— -143. Sat. i. Juvenal. 19 

O is it mere and simple madness, say, 140 

To lose ten thousand sesterces at play, 

And then attempt by paltry arts to save 

The cheap coarse garment of your shudd'ring slave ? 

which former translators have adopted, Dusaulx successfully 
argues, and at his representation I have rendered the passage 
anew by the adoption indeed of a more modern similitude. 
The Armiger or Squire on these occasions seems to have been, 
as he says, ' L'Esclave qtiifournissoit les Dez ' like the marker 
at a billiard room — not the steward of the gambler. 

It is well known that the bond, which united the No- 
ble with the Plebeian families of Rome, was founded on 
reciprocal advantage, and was, in her earlier days, an honor 
and a benefit to both. The Noble was surrounded by a train 
of clients whose interests he maintained, and whose necessi- 
ties he relieved : who sat in his hall and partook of his hos- 
pitality through life. — In the time of Juvenal, however, all 
this was passed away, nothing had become, as he tells us, (Sat. 
iii.) of less value than an old and faithful retainer, and the 
shadow of ancient generosity was reduced to an alms, either 
of provision or money, (at the option usually of the donor, 
though sometimes regulated by the emperors) which was dis- 
tributed at the door, beyond which the client gained no 
admittance. To make the picture before us as humiliating 
as possible, the crowd which scramble at the door are obliged 
to undergo an inspection by the distributor ; pretors and 
tribunes make a part of it ; while the host dines on the most 
extravagant dainties by himself — Peacock, one of them, which 
was at last so essential to a dinner, that Cicero writes to Pae- 
tus, ' vide audaciam, etiam Hirtio ccenam dedi sine Pavone. 7 

V. 141. To lose ten thousand. Sestertius, Sestertiurn. 
These 'were the terms made use of in common computation. 
A sestertius is computed at 1 d. % ; a denarius, 7d. % ; a ses- 



20 Sat. i. Juvenal, v. 144 — 160. 

What sire such villas rais'd, or e'er was known, 
Before seven covers to recline alone : 145 

While at the Gates a pittance mean and small 
Awaits the mob of Gowns— yet not for all ; 
Each face is scrutiniz'd— -(for rogues might claim 
The purse of farthings in a spurious name.) 
* Known you'll be help'd' — they summon one by 

one, 150 

Of Troy's high lineage every genuine son, 
For daily alms content with us to run ! 
6 Sir, I'm the Praetor' — c I'm the Tribune' — « how !' 
Cries some bold freedman — e by the gods I vow, 
' I came before ye both : — nor need I fear 155 

' To keep my right (altho' through either ear 
' The day-light shine, and palpably proclaim 
c That hither from Euphrates' banks I came) 
6 While five good rents the bleat ' Four Hundred* 

bring 
' And deck my finger with th' Equestrian ring ? 160 

tertium, which is the name of a sum, not of a coin, (like our 
pound) contained 1000 sestertii or Si. Is. 5d. f, 

V. 1.59. While jive good rents. The Equites, an interme- 
diate class between the patrician and plebeian orders, were 
eligible indifferently from either; the necessary estate in the 
latter times of the republic, and under the emperors was 400 
sestertia, (32291.) according to some (see Middleton's Cicero, 
vol. i. 3.) There was latterly no election into this order : it 
was a matter of course, in the lustrum (which took place 
every five years) all who had the property were enrolled in 
the list— hence the boast of the freedman in this passage. 
The census of the Senators was double that of the Equites ; their 



v. 151—179. Sat i. Juvenal. 21 

* What splendid Privilege can Purple shew, 

' And a whole Senate's honors, I would know, 

' If near Laurentum proud Corvinus keep, 

' For daily hire, a stranger's flock of sheep ? 

' Pallas, the Licini had less than we' 1 65 

Enough ! enough ! ye tribunes, bend the knee, 

And wait with patience and humility ! . 

O wealth, the day is thine! let honor bow 

Its sacred head to all thy minions now, 

To slaves grown arrogant, who sought an home, 1 70 

With feet unshod, in hospitable Rome ! 

And long it is since none at Rome deny 

To own of wealth the full divinity, 

Tho* to that power pernicious we behold 

No altar yet, no temple rais'd to Gold. 175 

Yet Peace, and Faith and Victory maintain 

Their proper ritual and their separate fane, 

As Concord once — where storks, which none molest, 

Now in the ruins rear the clattering nest ! 

distinction was a gold ring ; their privilege, a separate place 
in the theatre, fourteen rows being set apart for their accom- 
modation : Sat. xiv. 324. effice summani bis septem ordinibus 
quam lex dignatur Othonis. The slave, when made free, was 
called libertus, or libertinus ; the former by his master (meus 
libertus) ; the latter, as here, when the object of discourse. — 
For these terms we have but the one awkward compound, 
freed-man. 

V. 178. As concord once. Another passage of some diffi- 
culty. Juvenal has no expletive or unmeaning terms. The 
nest here mentioned is generally given to the Stork ; does 



22 Sat. i. Juvenal. v. 180 — 195* 

If beggar'd nobles are reduc'd to count 180 

The daily pension's annual amount, 
Robb'd of his right how shall the poor man fare, 
Where get him clothing, shoes and fuel where ? 
In close wedg'd ranks the crowded litters join, 
To take the compromise of paltry coin : 1 85 

Pregnant, or sick, at hazard of her life, 
This goes the daily circuit with his wife : 
Another follows with an empty chair, 
Receives his own, and claims his lady's share : 
' My Galla, Sir, — she's ' there in the sedan, 190 
' And I'm in haste to-day — what ails the man ?' 

* Bid her look out' — ' My friend, you surely jest, 

* I left her sleeping — break a lady's rest !' 

Our every hour its proper care demands, 
The Dole — the Forum, where Apollo stands — 1 95 

not Juvenal make the bird build there to intimate the de- 
sertion of that temple, and that it was allowed to fall into 
ruins 1 A similar word had been used by Ovid in relation 
to the Stork, 

Ipsa sibi plaudat crepitante Ciconia rostro, 
and an ingenious friend remarks to me, in the structure of 
the Stork's bill, the propriety of its application. That 
structure is such as to produce a noise, not ill expressed by 
the epithet of clattering, which, at his suggestion, I have 
adopted in the translation. 

V. 195. The Forum. The forum was the place of all 
public business, and thither was the great man still attended 
by such clients as he could contrive to keep about him at 



v. 196 — 217. Sat. i. Juvenal. 23 

Where (not ungrateful) Rome has rais'd on high 
Triumphal Forms in marble majesty ; 
Where some Egyptian — some I know not who, 
Some Arabarch — must plant his image too ! — 
A spot select than which, in all the street 200 

For nature's urgent calls were none more meet ! 
Long as he may, the famish'd client waits, 
Then turns reluctant from the churlish gates 
By hopes no more sustain'd ; the wretched man 
Must get him scraps and fuel as he can ; 205 

Meanwhile his patron eats whate'er the field, 
Whate'er the woods, whate'er the ocean, yield : 
Before one table at his ease reclines, 
And 'midst a score of empty couches dines, 
Without one guest, tho' many an Orb be there, 210 
Of vast circumference and materials rare. 
None now shall play the parasite at least, 
But O the meanness of a great man's feast ! 
Gods ! shall one throat for pleasures of its own 
Provide whole boars — for banquets meant alone ? 
But see, indignant fate her mission sends 216 

And marks her man, as to the bath he tends 



small expense. — Juvenal seldom suffers any corrupt foreigner, 
never an Egyptian, to pass without a remark. The Roman 
tables mentioned a few lines lower were circular (orbes) and 
constituted an article of the greatest ostentation and luxury 
in these times. Juvenal will here best illustrate himself, re- 
fer to Sat. xi. 123. 



24 Sat. i. Juvenal, v. 218 — 233. 

With peacock gorg'd — there bids him gasp for 

breath 
In one short struggle with convulsive death ! 
News with applause by angry friends receiv'd, 220 
None grieves for him, for none who ever griev'd. 

Morals like ours defy posterity ! — 
Worse than their Sires, the sons can never be, 
To wish our wishes, all we did, to do, 
And of our crimes to follow all the clue, 225 

Is left to them' — go then and spread thy sail, 
And fill its bosom with no changeling gale. 

All this is well, methinks I hear you say, 
But whence thy genius for the subject, pray ; 
Of ancient times that stern simplicity, 230 

Of spirit dauntless and of utterance free ? 
' Tho' Mutius take offence, I little care,' 
True, but if Tigellinus — O beware 



V. 233. True, but if Tigellinus. The person alluded to 
under this name might well be an object of terror. Tigel- 
linus himself was long since dead, having been destroyed by 
Otho. He was one of the most dangerous of the satellites of 
Nero, with whom he was in high favor. ' Validior indies Tigel- 
linus ; et malas artes, quibus solis pollebat, gratiores ratus 
si principem societate scelerum obstringebat.' (Tacit. Ann.) 
The same author relates a smart repartee addressed to this 
dangerous favorite. Nero having dismissed his wife Octavia 
on a charge of sterility, had married the infamous Poppgea. 
The latter, desirous to ruin Octavia beyond recovery, imputes 
to her an illicit amour with a slave. Tigellinus cross-ques- 



v. 234 — 235. Sat. i. Juvenal. 25 

Lest it be yours that hapless band to join, 

Who writhe in tortures 'midst the blazing pine ; 235 

tious the servants, and endeavours to extort something from 
them to criminate their mistress : one of them promptly re- 
plies to his interrogatories, ' Castiora esse muliebria Octaviae, 
quam os ejus.' The line above that, which occasioned this 
note, 

Quid refert an dictis ignoscat Mutius an non ? 
is by some interpreters of Juvenal given to that part of the 
dialogue sustained by his friend. There is far more of spirit, 
if it is read as the exclamation of the Satirist. 

The death of Tigellinus is worth transcribing : Inter stupra 
concubinarum, et oscula, et deformes moras, sectis novacula 
faucibus, infamem vitam foedavit, etiam exitu sero et inho- 
nesto. Tacit. Hist. i. 72. 

The remainder of this passage has been a favorite subject 
for contention. — The interpretation of the line, 

Et latum media sulcum diducit arena, 

which I have adopted, is that of Scaliger. The passage gene- 
rally refers to the horrible iniquity of Nero in putting the 
Christians to a most barbarous death, on an affected suspi- 
cion, that they had set fire to the city. I do not think that 
any one has adverted to the casualty which enabled this mon- 
ster to transfer with more success, than he otherwise could, 
the odium of this misfortune to the early converts of the 
Christian church. Without some plausible pretext he never 
would have been able to have carried his villainy into effect. 
Now it so happened that, in the destructive fire which brought 
on these calamities, two or three of the mobt ancient temples 
in Rome, (Vetustissimce Religionis, is the expression of Taci- 
tus) were reduced to ashes. The use to be made of this was 



26 Sat i. Juvenal. v. 236—251. 

With throats transfiVd, who trickle as they stand, 
And form deep furrows in the crimson'd sand ; 
6 What then shall he, who mingled Aconite 
c For his three uncles, still insult our sight ? 
' Sunk in soft down, shall he in sovereign state* — 
Peace! peace! and rush not on thy certain fate : 241 
Let him but point and say two words, * the Man — ' 
Thy doom is fix'd, be wise and change thy plan •, 
O bid the Muse to themes more harmless turn, 
And tell the tale of Hylas and his urn ; 245 

JEneas, Turnus — none their quarrel harms, 
None shall vow vengeance where none feel alarms. 
But when Lucilius with intrepid hand, 
Bares the bright terrors of his gleaming brand ; 
How the warm current mantles in the cheek, 250 
And sins reveal'd in burning blushes speak ! 

obvious ; and we all know the effects of religious bigotry. 
' They quit our temples for new 'Gods, and next they burn 
them.' 

As to the Sulcus being occasioned by the liquefaction of the 
victims, I think it indeed probable the passage should be so un- 
derstood—but on the supposition of a strong hyperbole. By 
the road side were the places of interment of the Romans, 
which accounts for the monumental formulary, s I ste viatoe. 
That no burials took place within the walls of the city must 
have arisen from other causes than those which a modern 
reader, familiar with that odious practice, might suppose. 
Ashes are ever harmless. I conceive the custom, therefore, 
to resolve itself into a compliment to the memory of the de- 
ceased, rather than an act of self-protection on the part of 
the living. 



v. 252 — 259. Sat. i. Juvenal. 27 

The bosom heaves with agony supprest, 
And chilling damps bedew the laboring breast ; 
Then comes the burst of rage ! — O friend, beware, 
Before you sound the trumpet for the war ; 255 
The helmet on, thou canst no more decline, 
Now, be the perils of the combat thine ! 

Be then their patience tried, whose bones decay 
Beneath the Latin and Flaminian way. 

Supplementary Note. Two citations follow, both 
about rivers, extremely opposite in their kiuds of merit, but 
alike serving to show to what a degree objects only mode- 
rately interesting are capable of embellishment, by the 
poet's art. .ZEschylus must take precedence of Mr. Gray. 

Mollis picinum rupibus antrum 

Vulcani. 



pi%a.i<riv Aitvociaig vtt'o 

KO^VfOUS <T SV CfH(JQLlS 7)[J,£V0; [JsVSgOKTVrfSl 

HipaicrTos, svQsv sKga,yii)<rQvra.t ntots 
tforapoi Tfvgo; Sarftovrs; aygicu; yvctQoi; 
rys Ha.XKiY.a.Q'itov "ZiksXhzs Xsvgag yva$. 
Aut Lugdunensem Rhetor, Sfc. 

Confluence of the Rhone and the Saone at Lyons. 
" Two people of tempers extremely unlike think fit to 
join hands here, and make a little party to travel to the Me- 
diterranean in company. The lady comes gliding along 
through the fruitful plains of Burgundy incredibili lenitate, 
ita ut -oculis in utram partem- fluit judicare non possit ; the 
gentleman runs, all rough and roaring, down from the moun- 
tains of Switzerland to meet her, and with all her soft airs 
she likes him never the worse ; she goes through the city in 
state, and he passes incog, without the walls, but waits for 
her a little below." Mason's Gray, v. I. 197. 



argument. 



There is so little of connection in many of the Satires 
that to write an Argument would mostly resolve itself 
into a summary of the contents of each. Of this the 
hypocrisy of vice is the general subject. The unnatural 
passions, the imitation of the rites of the Bona Dea, and 
the exhibition of the Nobles on the stage, are principal 
parts of it. None of all the Satires is more difficult to 
translate, and though many are of more general interest, 
yet none (for the length) has finer passages. There is much 
indeed of exceptionable matter to a modern ear, which, 
however it might be a'reason for glossing over in a transla- 
tion, can weigh for nothing against the Poet, who probably 
thought that to give things their right name, and to expire 
boldly, was the accomplishment of half his work in a case 
where the vice was of a kind so abhorrent to the common 
feelings of mankind. Let the Reader look over a dozen 
of the earlier pages of the Epigrams of Meleager, many of 
those very beautiful, (Brunk. Anthol. v. i.) and he will 
judge whether there was occasion for such a Satire as this. 



29 



PERSONS AND PLACES 

MENTIONED IN THE SATIRE. 



PERSONS. 

Sanromata, the inhabitants of Sarmatia on either side of 
the Tanais. 

Peribomius, probably a fictitious name vsgi^o^ios qui cir- 
ca aras est. Ruperti. 

Sextus, Varillus, also fictitious names : at least not known. 

Gracchus, Caius and Tiberius, the celebrated advocates 
for the Agrarian law, a subject which occasioned such 
dreadful scenes in the republic : they both lost their 
lives in the popular tumult, U. C. 621. The object of 
the Agrarian law was, that none of the Nobles should 
possess above 500 acres of land, but that the overplus 
should be divided among the people. 

The Gracchus, who makes so conspicuous a figure below, 
is supposed by some to be a feigned name. Sempronius 
Gracchus, of another family, who lived in the reign of 
Augustus, though a very bad character, would be too far 
back for the purpose of a satire written in the reign 
of Domitian. 

Verres. See Middleton's Cicero, Vol. I. — A celebrated 
Praetor of Sicily who has had the honor of giving his name 
to all corrupt aud oppressive governors. 



30 

Milo, well known by the defence which Cicero made for 
him after the murder of Clodius; it was, however, 
only a speech intended to be spoken. 

Clodius, best known by his intrusion as a ' Psaltria,* 
vide Sat. vi. into the mysteries of the Bona Dea, in 
order to accomplish his intrigue with the wife of Caesar. 

Sylla. See Sat. i. 

Julia, the daughter of Titus, and niece of Domitian, 
whom he might have married before she became the 
wife of Sabinus. After that marriage he seduced her, 
murdered her husband, and destroyed by abortive drugs 
herself and her child. 

Laronia. — Dives, anus, vidua (Martial). 

Tcedia, Cluvia, Flora, Catulla, either feigned names or 
unknown. 

Hippo, the same. 

Histor, Pacuvius, probably the same, on whom Juvenal 
bestows some poetical execrations at the end of Satire 

XTI. 

Creticus, some Roman of illustrious family. 

Procula, Pollita, Fabulla, Carfinia. Most likely these 
are real names. Procula is again introduced in the 3d 
Satire, as too little even for the bed of Codrus. 

Cotytto, dctipoov tpogTMog. Dea nefandae libidinis, called 
Cecropian from her worship at Athens. 

Lyde, a vender of specifics or provocatives at Rome. 

Zalates, an Armenian Hostage, and without doubt a real 
name. That Armenia had about this time given this sort 
of security for her good behaviour, see Tacit, Ann. 
xiii. 9. xv. 1. 



3i 



PLACES. 

Bebriacum or Bedriacum, was adjacent to Cremona. 
Plutarch relates, that visiting this celebrated field of 
battle soon after the victory of Vitellius, he saw em- 
bankments of dead bodies as high as a man's neck from 
the ground. 

Juverna. Ireland. 

Artaxata, the capital of Armenia. 



Satire n. 



Fain would I fly beyond Sarmatia's snows, 
Beyond the Ice-bound Ocean seek repose, 
When, preaching morals, these Impostors come, 
Stoics abroad, and Bacchanals at home. 
Egregious Dunces ! — though in moulded clay 5 
Heads of Chrysippus every Hall display : 

V. 5. Egregious Dunces, though Sfc. Plena omnia Gyp- 
so. The mineral substance called Gypsum, for which I 
have substituted Clay, was well known to the ancients, (see Dr. 
Kidd's Mineral. 1, 69, and the passages there cited,) and this 
line of Juvenal shows that Busts were made of it, as at present 
with Plaister of Paris. Their manner of doing which could 
not well be any other than the modern one, from moulds : as 
this Earth does not become plastic when mixed with water, 
but in a few seconds concretes into a hard lump, nothing 
could be less fit for the hand of the modeller. This last 
property is particularly mentioned by Theophrastus in con- 
nection indeed with another which gives some ambiguity to 
the passage, figsyovcn 8s ndx^^X^W 01, ^^S ^ X§ £l<KV ' sa,y 
piKgov vgOTSgov, tocyni tfyyvvrai %ou oujc scrrt het&eiv dpa. Yet 
he adds that it is the best of all earths for making Images, 



v. 7 — 24. Sat. ii. Juvenal. 33 

(For he becomes at once a sage with these, 

Who buys up every Pittacus he sees, 

And bids his friends admire the known antique, 

Cleanthes' bronze, or Plato's marble cheek !) 10 

Trust not the Face ; lewdness in solemn guise 

In ev'ry street for ever meets the eyes : 

Dost thou at vice thus raise the hue and cry, 

The foulest of the foul Socratic sty ? 

That frame compact, those limbs with bristles sewn, 

Promise, indeed, a mind of manly tone, y [15 

But e'en the Surgeon smiles, when call'd to cure 

Foul ails which such Philosophers endure ! 

Of speech most rare, with brows of monstrous size, 

Forth go the sons of Lewdness in disguise : 20 

Why Peribomius' self disgusts me less, 

Whose every step betrays Licentiousness : 

Sins on the face inscribed without dispute, 

To cruel Fate I'm ready to impute ; 

yXia-xfOfvjTi, kou ksiotrjrt, which terms, as they would hardly 
apply, except to a substance capable of being wrought by the 
hand, are not easily reconcileable either with our knowledge of 
the mineral in question, or with the preceding lines of the 
passage. 

V. 14. The foulest of the foul, fyc. To suppose 
that by the words Socraticos Cincedos any reflections were 
intended on the character of one who seems to have been the 
most enlightened and virtuous man of all antiquity, would be 
equally unnecessary and injurious. These terms are placed 
in opposition to each other ; these wretches consummately 
depraved and abandoned as they were Socratised. 

Juv. C 



34 Sat, ii. Juvenal. v. 25—46. 

Ingenuous Vice may some Compassion move, 25 
And Pity feel, though Principle reprove. 
Far, far more hateful the pretending crew, 
Who lash the crimes they love and practise too. 
' Thee, Sextus, thee, so forward and so bold,* 
Varillus cries, ' must I with dread behold ? SO 

' No, let the white man taunt the Negro still, 

* The strait deride the crooked, if they will ; 

4 But Gracchus roaring Treason who shall bear, 
' Who would not mingle Ocean, Earth, and Air, 
6 A Thief, when honest Verres can't abide, 35 

c And Milo must be shock' d at Homicide ? 
' If Clodius 'gainst adultery declaim, 

* If Catiline denounce his comrade's name, 

4 And his three Pupils at those acts inveigh, 

' Which Sylla used with more reserve than they?' 40 

Just such a censor he, who unappall'd 

By his own full charg'd conscience, loudly call'd 

For laws forgotten and those stern decrees 

Which leave not Mars and Venus quite at ease, 

When Julia, by abortives long employ'd, 45 

Had of her teeming womb the fruit destroy'd, 

V. 41. Just such a censor he. That is, such a censor was 
Domitian, who, after debauching his own niece and destroying 
her by the use of abortives, had the impudence to revive the 
law which condemned the unchaste vestal to be buried alive, 
and actually to carry it into execution on the person of Corne. 
lia Maxiinilla. Pliny Epist. iv. 10. Suetonius vita Domit. 
22. The force of the original in this as in a thousand passa- 
ges defies adequate translation. " Patruo similes effunderet 
offias" 



y, 47 — 60. Sat ii. Juvenal. 35 

A soft and half form'd mass, where one might 

trace 
The first rude features of her Uncle's face ! — • 
The veriest wretch such Censors must disdain, 
And when he feels the fang will bite again. SO 

One of this scowling school would often roar, 
Sleep' st thou, O Julian law, to wake no more ? 
Laronia heard, and sneering thus began : 
6 Hail, happy times, which boast so grave a man ! 
6 Yes! stand thou forth, Shame shall once more arise ? 
' See Rome's third Cato fallen from the skies ! [55 
i Yet — 'do I err ? a fragrance most divine 

* Seems to exhale from that rough neck of thine, 

* Pray were it fair to ask the Vender's name ? — 

4 Yet hark ye, friend, if thus in love with fame, 60 

V. 52. Sleep'st thou, O Julian law. This law was enacted by 
Augustus to check the progress of adultery. Of the Scantinian, 
which Laronia desires to see revived, the title is sufficient, 
De Verier e nefanda. 

V. 59- Pray were it fair. The Perfume which thus 
attracts the attention of Laronia is called Opobalsam, the same 
apparently as the balm of Gilead — not indeed like that which 
is now sometimes met with under the name, but such as Pliny 
describes, Suavitatis eximiee, which flowed from the bark of 
a very rare shrub of Palestine. Its juice (ottos) was absorbed 
by little pieces of wool, and so highly valued, that Poinpey 
displayed one of the shrubs from which it is obtained among 
the rarest ornaments of a triumph. The shrub itself perished 
as early as the 7th century, according to the authority of 
Arculti, cited by the latest traveller in Palestine, Chateaubri- 
and. What we call Balm of Gilead could never have been 
esteemed a perfume. 



36 Sat. u. Juvenal, v. 61—90. 

* If ancient laws and edicts be thy taste, 

* Get the Scantinian first of all replac'd- — - 
6 Go, scrutinise of Men the virtues rare, 

' Much need they, by report, thy tender care 

' Tho' knit in closest bands with shields conjoin'd, 

* Number, its own defence, will ever find, [65 
' Link'd in the strictest friendship are the base ; 

* Yet crimes like yours shall none in women trace j 
' For Cluvia, Tasdia breathes no amorous sighs, 

* Nor sees unhallow'd fires, in Flora's eyes ; 70 

* Hispo, alike to either vice inur'd, 

' Grows pale with crimes or practis'd or endur'd. 
' No litigations claim our vacant hours, 

* Your forums echo to no brawls of ours : 

' Some few I own, but they are only few, 75 

1 In the Athletic toil contend with you : 
' Ye the spun fleece in baskets put away, 
' Proud of the labors of th* inglorious day ! 

* Arachne's self at your success would pine, 

6 Ne'er drew Penelope a thread so fine ! 80 

* 'Tis well ! go on, and share your noble toil 

* With every sordid wench ' in durance vile i* 

' Why to his Freedman Hister will'd alone 

* His wealth entire, throughout the town is known ; 
' Nor less, why the same Hister in his life, 85 

* Lavish'd large gifts on his enduring wife. 

* She shall be rich, who, to all feeling dead, 
6 All morals lost, will make a third in bed. 

6 Marry, and hold thy tongue, and many a ring, 
e And many a Gem shall well-judg'd silence bring. 90 



v. 91-— 120. Sat. ii. Juvenal. 37 

4 What ! midst such crimes shall Woman, Woman still 

« Bear all reproach, and be abus'd at will ? 

' Censure, alas ! for us no mercy knows, 

' Severe to Doves — compassionate to Crows.' 

A tale of truth she sang, the sages fled, 9.5 

For well Laronia had their morals read ; 
But, Creticus, what shall not others do, 
When robes of gauze are thus assum'd by you ? 
Canst thou, good Magistrate ! in Garb so rare 
To cite our Proclas or Pollineas dare ? 100 

* Notorious these ! not e'en Fabulla more ' — 
Condemn them — whip Carfinias by the score ; 
Yet shalt thou find, convicted tho' they be, 
Those strumpets clad with greater decency. [105 

* But July burns,' — strip then and naked plead ; 
Stark mad they'll think thee, and excuse the deed. 
Shalt thou thus rob'd pronounce the grave discourse, 
Expound the laws, or with stern tone enforce, 
While thy victorious countrymen draw near 
Smarting with recent wounds the speech to hear ? 
Or yon rude peasant from the mountains come, [110 
Who left his plough awhile, to gaze at Rome ! 
What must we still be silent and behold 

Our awful judge, whom cobweb robes enfold ? 
Judge, did I say ? Why it might move our spleen 

If such attire were on a Witness seen [115 

These films transparent, Creticus, on you 

Each vain excess appointed to subdue ! 

Wide has contagion spread this fatal stain 

On Roman morals,- and shall spread again. 120 



38 Sat. ii. Juvenal, v. 121 — 138, 

Thus in the fields one mangy hog is known 
To taint the herd with foulness like his own j 
And thus the sunless Grape, by shadows vext, 
Absorbs its blushing color from the next. 
Disgraceful garb ! but thou shalt quickly try 125 
Some new opprobrium of a deeper die, 
And aid the well-establish'd truth to teach, 
None at one plunge the depths of base- 
ness REACH. 
Ere long, the monstrous troop thou shalt have 

join'd 
Where each, with garlands on his brows entwin'd, 
To hear her suppliant the Good Goddess moves [ 1 30 
With the swine's udder, and the cup she loves. 
Of whose perverted rites the priests demure 
Far from the threshold drive the sex impure. 
For Males alone the smoking Altars rise — 1 35 
Hence, Sex profane ! be gone ! the herald cries ; 
Be these our shrines approach'd by males alone ; 
Here shall no trumpets sound, by women blown. 

V. 123. And thus the sunless Grape. A vulgar opinion 
founded on the unequal manner in which black grapes acquire 
their color, the more exposed ripening first ; which had passed 
into a proverb recorded by Suidas fiords <itg og fiorguv Tteiau- 
vstsci. 

V. 127. And aid the well established, fyc. Thus Racine, 

Ainsi que la vertu, k crime a ses degres 

Et jamais on rCa vu la timide Innocence 

Passer mbitement a Vextrime Licence. 

Un jour seul ne fait point d'un Mortel vertiuin 

Un perfide assassin, un lache incestueux. 



y, 139 — 142. Sat. ij. Juvenal. 39 

(By midnight torch display'd such orgies lewd 
Her Baptss wrought-- and tir'd Cotytto view'd.) 
Some with fine pencil, steep'd in sooty dye, [140 
Extend the brow, or tinge the trembling eye ; 

V. 141. Some with fine pencil, Sfc. The painting of the 
eye, or eye-lash, which seems at first sight impossible, is an 
Oriental custom which continues to this day; so that any 
change in the punctuation of the passage is needless. 
The manner of doing it among the Turks is described by 
Shaw and Russel. The coloring matter they use is the sulphuret 
of Antimony; some of this is made to adhere to a small 
smooth wire of two inches long, upon which they close the 
eye-lids, and then draw it through so as to leave the color on 
their edges ; it is therefore in fact the staining the inner edge 
of the eye-lid which is the object of the practice. Hence 
the art is called by Varro, Calliblepharon. Chateaubriand 
has the following passage which affords a farther illus- 
tration. " The women of Athens appear to me smaller and 
less handsome than those of the Morea: their practice of 
painting the orbit of the eyes blue and the ends of the lingers 
red is disagreeable to a stranger." In the addenda to the 
volumes of Ruperti I find cited the work of a German au- 
thor, Bottiger, who quotes something from Galen tfegi Tvjv 
wr/psgai a-Ti^i^o^evuiv yvvouxuiv, but these lines are written 
in a place where to consult Galen is impossible. A learned 
and an entertaining note may be read on this subject, 
on a passage in \ VatL'ek an Arabian Tale,' where it is well 
remarked that the (3Xetpccgcov ltvv xaXaivyv of Anacreon is 
completely explained by this practice ; and perhaps too the 
Homeric sXinwitig. ' They color the inside of their eye-lashes, 
some with a mixture of Antimony and oil called in Turkish 
Surmeh ; some with the Soot made of the smoke from the 
gum of Labdanum, and they throw a powder into the corners 



40 Sat* ii. Juvenal, v. 143 — 150. 

Some for a cup a glass Priapus hold, 

Or bind huge tresses in their cawls of gold ; 

Soft napless cloths of tints ccerulean wear, 145* 

While servants, by their master's ' Juno ' swear : 

By others see the polish'd mirror borne, 

In tented fields by gentlest Otho worn, 

On which the Pathic General fondly gaz'd, 

Then bade the signal for the fight be rais'd ! 150 

of the eye to add to its brilliancy.' Hobhouse's Albania. I. 
497- 

V. 145. Soft napless cloths. Ccerulea indutus scutulata aut 
Galbana rasa. Our knowledge of the Arts among the an- 
cients is too limited to explain with accuracy their technical 
terms. The commentators make scutulata to mean a shield- 
like figure in the texture of the stuff (like trie Meshes of 
a net.) — Rasa without hair or wool on the surface — Galbana, 
the color of Galbanum; which last interpretation I much doubt. 
" After all, the Latin words for colors are very puzzling, for 
not to mention purpura, which is evidently applied to three 
different colors at least, scarlet, porphyry and what we call 
purple, that is amethyst — the chapter of Aulus Gellius ap- 
pears to create more difficulties than it removes. I can 
conceive that a Poet might call a Horse viridis ; though I 
should think the term rather forced." Letters between Fom 
and Wakefield, p. 34. 

The interpretation of scutulata is warranted by a passage 
in Pliny, L. viii. 48. who says also that the use of the Toga 
rasa was not older than Augustus. This obscure writer has 
a chapter on colors, in which Galbanum is not mentioned. 

V. 147- By others see the polish'd mirror. Otho has 
certainly some grounds on which to appeal from the satirist 
to the historian. That he was a young man, living in the 
practice of the luxuries and the vices of the times, is a point 



v. 151—152. Sat. ii. Juvenal, 41 

A Mirror- — Annalists ! the fact record, 
Displayed, when civil broils unsheath'd the sword s 

in which Tacitus, Plutarch, and Suetonius concur. But there 
was an energy and decision in his character, which makes it 
fit that something more should be recorded of him than his 
mirror ; and although Galba warned his adherents that the 
Republic had in vain escaped from Nero, if it should be ruled 
by his intimate associate and friend, Otho appears to have 
been the associate of Nero's pleasures more than of his cruel- 
ties. 

Of luxurious habits which would have ruined a Prince, 
and wholly destitute of fortune to support them, the conse- 
quences to such a mind were natural ; ' compositis rebus 
nulla spes, omne in turbido consilium :' he projects therefore 
or consents to the murder of Galba, gets himself proclaimed 
Emperor, acts without discretion in the war which he was 
instantly obliged to undertake against Vitellius, and commits 
suicide when his affairs were far from irretrievable, having 
been master of the Roman Empire but 95 days, and at the age 
of 38. In the camp Otho assumes a character quite the reverse 
of that which he had borne in the city. We find him the Idol of 
the Soldiers, whose devotion to him continues as great as 
ever, even after his defeat at Bebriacum, where indeed, had he 
taken the advice of his Generals, he never would have risqued 
a battle ; amidst his disasters these steady adherents assemble 
round their chief, and console him with the declaration 
' ipsos extrema passuros ausurosque,' ' neque,' adds the His- 
torian, ' erat adulatio.' 

It is now that he begins to justify the observation of 
Tacitus, ' non erat Othonis mollis et corpori similis animus,' 
It evidently appears that he did not think his own fortunes 
desperate ; he had no fears of the defection of his army ; a 
considerable part of it had not been engaged at all, and was 
ready for the renewal of hostilities : Vespasian who command 



42 Sat. ii. Juvenal. v. 153 — 154. 

Amidst a General's baggage! — well, the name 
Of General, Galba's murderer became! 

cd the armies of Judaea had declared in his favor ; Reinforce- 
ments were marching to join him from Pannonia, Moesia, and 
Dalmatia. Yet with all these advantages, we find him waving 
every consideration of personal aggrandisement, and holding 
the sacrifice of his own life, (on which he instantly resolves) 
of no account when placed against the horrors of a civil war. 
In the prosecution of this design he shows much greatness of 
mind, and philosophical composure. He takes an affectionate 
farewell of his soldiers and officers, but (not even in such 
moments forgetting the General) summons them according to 
their rank, and makes deliberate provision for their departure, 
takes care to burn all letters which shew attachment to him- 
self, and disaffection to Vitellius. He gives money, but still it 
is with discretion, ' Payee nee ut periturus,' and tells his 
Nephew to be of good courage, since Vitellius will recollect 
that his Uncle died not in desperate fortunes. ' Sed poscente 
preelium exercitu.' He then retires, to revolve in quiet his 
last cares — is interrupted by a noise — finds some of his friends 
impeded ia their departure by the Soldiers ; restores peace, 
and retires a second time. It were injurious to give the 
remainder of this pathetic scene, which is circumstantially 
described as well by Dio, as by Tacitus, in other language 
than that of the Roman Historian. 

' Vesperascente die, situm haustu gelidae aquae sedavit : 
turn, allatis pugionibus duobus, quum utramque pertentasset, 
alterum capiti subdidit et explorato jam profectos amicos, 
noctem quietam et, ut adfirmant, non iusomnem egit. Luce 
prima in ferrum pectore incubuit — ad gemitum morientis in- 
gressi Liberti. Tulere corpus praetorian cohortes cum laudi- 
bus et lacrymis, vultus manusque ejus exosculantes — quidam 
railitum juxta rogum interfecere se caritate principis— Othoni 



v. 155 — 174. Sat. n. Juvenal. 43 

Such Implements beseem the Chieftain rare ; 155 
Well may his skin deserve a Patriot's care ! 
With store of bland perfumes behold him come, 
E'en to thy blood-stain'd field, Bebriacum! 
The ease of Palaces in camps to seek, 
And wrap in moisten'd meal his tender cheek, 160 
Which e'en Assyria's clime had never seen 
At the soft toilet of her Huntress Queen, 
Which Cleopatra's self had held in scorn, 
Erst in that mournful bark at Actium borne I 

Here of foul Cybele the licence reigns, 1 65 

Nor shame, nor reverence of the board restrains ; 
The faltering voice of lust alone is heard, 
While some Fanatic with a hoary beard, 
Fam'd for his throat, and known at ev'ry feast, 
O'er the foul mystery presides High-priest. 1 70 

What do these wretches wait for, why delay 
Organs, superfluous now, to cut away ? 
One that of late the horn or trumpet blew, 
Gracchus beheld, and lov'd and married too. 

sepulchrum extructum est modicum et mansumm. — Mansu- 
rum certainly, since Tacitus records it. 

V. 158. E'en to thy Mood-stain' d field, Sfc. Is it neces- 
sary to cite modern authorities in justification of the o^oiots- 
'azvtov 1 The most accessible at present (for memory supplies 
it) is to be found in the last words of Marmion. 

V. 173. One that of late Sfc. A new Scene and one of 
inconceivable enormity ; but the text requires no illustration. 
The Flammeum some derive from the vest worn by the wife 
of the Flamen who could not be divorced. Hence it might 
represent a happy marriage ; others think it was red or flame« 



44 Sat. ii. Juvenal. v. 175 — 198. 

Sestertia, twice two hundred, were the dower, 175 
The deeds were sign'd ; arriv'd the nuptial hour. 
Friends wish'd him joy, invited to the feast, 
And the new Bride lay in the Bridegroom's breast ! 

Say, Nobles, say, do crimes like these demand 
Religion's rites, or Law's avenging hand ? 1 80 

Is it the Censor, or the Priest we need 
To crush the man, or expiate the deed ? 
Could the dread omens with more terrors warn, 
Were lambs of cows, or calves of women born ? 
He, who beneath the huge Ancilia bent 1 85 

Which stretch'd the cord, and nodded as he went, 
Now wears, ye gods ! the Flammeum of the bride, 
The necklace, robes, and all the gear beside ! 

Parent of Rome ! ah whence this fatal stain, 
This curse which clings to Latium's simple swain ¥ 
Say, in what soil did that rank nettle spring [190 
Of which thy children feel the poisonous sting ? 
A man, behold ! of wealth and noble birth 
A man espouses ! — yet nor feels the earth 
Thy ponderous spear, nor does thy helmet nod, 
Nor thou to Jove complain'st — thy parent God ![ 1 95 
Go then, and abdicate thy empty reign, 
Too careless ruler of thy native plain 1 — 

colored in compassion to the delicacy of the Bride. The 
lines that presently follow designate Gracchus for one of the 
Salii or Priests of Mars, which office of sanctity and honor, 
thus publicly prostituted, gives the highest coloring to this 
picture of the depravity of the times. 

Omne animi vithm tanto conspectius in se 
Crimen habet, quanto major qui peccat habetur. 



y, 199 — 213. Sat. ii. Juvenal. 45 

* A friendly office,' (listen to the tale,) 
' At sunrise, summons me to yonder vale* — ■ 200 
« The cause V — * it matters not — well then, my 

friend 
* Invites a few — his wedding to attend.' 
Live but a little longer, they'll record, 
In public registers, these deeds abhorr'd — 
Yet one mischance to all such nuptials clings, 205 
The sterile bride no pledge of fondness brings ; 
Nature refuses, provident and kind, 
Against the body's rights, t'indulge the mind. 
E'en to the Priests of Pan in vain they fly, -\ 
PufF'd Lyde's hot Incentives vainly try, v 210 
Condemn'd in sad sterility to die. j 

And yet a sight more monstrous have we view'd, 
When round th' arena shamefully pursued 

V. 209. * E'en to the Priests of Pan. The Faculty of Rome 
we see divided the honor of removing barrenness with the 
Priesthood of Pan, who ran about the streets in the month of 
February, distributing stripes of singular efficacy in the re- 
moval of this obstinate and troublesome complaint. Hence 
Ovid, 

Non tu pollentibus herbis 

Nee prece, nee magico carmine Mater eris. 
Excipefcecundce patient er verbera deoctrce. 

Fast. II. 426". 
V. 212. More monstrous yet. Juvenal, we are apt to 
think, could never regard the degradation of Gracchus in the 
Roman arena, as a greater enormity than that on which he 
had just invoked as it were the vengeance of the. Gods — he 
had, it is true, the greatest horror of witnessing this practice 



46 Sat. ii. Juvenal. v. 214—223. 

A coward Gladiator ! fled the foe 

Before all Rome, spectatress of the shew ? 215 

Gracchus! — whose veins impell'd more generous 

blood 
Than in Marcellus, than in Fabius flow'd, 
Paulus or Catulus — to all their names 
Tho' his be added who conferr'd the games ; 
Or Their's who claim the privilege to sit 220 

Distinct from all — the sovereigns of the pit. 

Shades of the dead and subterranean reigns 
Are fables now, which every youth disdains ; 

of public exposure on the arena or the stage, to which s» 
many of the Roman Nobility were addicted. 

Non cogente quidem, sed nee prohibente Tribuno. 

Yet I do not see how we are to get over the obvious mean- 
ing of ' Vicit et hoc monstrum fyc' 

V. 222. Shades of the dead. I take the meaning of this 
beautiful passage to be as follows. ' The regions of de- 
parted Spirits/ — on which, inapassage of less gravity, I should 
have been inclined to think that some ridicule was here in- 
tended to be thrown (but that supposition being inadmissible 
from the serious air of the whole, we must regard the lines a* 
mere poetical Periphrasis,) — The Regions of departed Spirits 
have become, in this age of practical atheism, the objects 
of ridicule and contempt. But come, indulge a Poet in sup- 
posing them true — Then what a figure shall the ghost of 
Gracchus, or any such ghost make amidst the splendid con- 
stellation of Republican spirits there assembled. 

1. The source of their uneasiness, and their wish to be 
purified from the contamination incurred by such a visitor, 
could not be his Infidelity, as some have supposed : — Bodily 
Defilement, not opinions, were the objects of Lustrations 



v. 224 — 241. Sat. 11. Juvenal. 47 

The frogs that croak along the Stygian shore, 

And the small bark which wafts its thousands o'er, 

Dreams ! which each puny boy as yet denied [225 

The public bath, is ready to deride : 

But O ! suppose them true — then tell me, friend s 

When such a spirit shall at length descend 

To the brave souls that in those regions dwell, 230 

With what emotions shall the Scipios swell ! 

Camillus, Curius, all our youth consumed 

On Cannes plain : at Cremera entomb'd 

A Roman legion ? mark'd with glorious scars, 

Ye shadowy victims of so many wars, 235 

From foul pollution, not the moisten'd bough, 

Nor sulphur, nor the pine can save ye now ! 

Thither alas we miserable tend, 

Whose arms beyond Juverna's shores extend, 

Whose conquests scarcely those of Britain bound j 240 

Britain for brevity of night renown* d : 

among the ancients. 2. Even if Fabricius, Camillus, or Curius, 
should have been displeased at his unbelief, displeasure for 
such a cause could never be imputed to a Legion and to all 
the Soldiers, killed at Cannje, as it well might, on the suppo- 
sition of Cowardice and Unnatural Vices. What occasions 
this burst of indignation 1 was it not the flight of Gracchus 
on the Arena] The ' ta verapnta,' is said cntunrnKuig scoffingly ; 
' admit just for a moment that there is a future state." 
Dusaulx I observe rightly translates JL 'ombre d'tin Infame. 

I have given a little turn to the last four or five lines, by 
making the Poet address himself to the young Armenians, 
and warn them of what in the original he only says will happen 
if they stay. Artaxata was the capital of Armenia. 



48 Sat. ii. Juvenal. v. 242—255. 

Yet e'en the feeblest tribes our arms subdue, 

Our softer vices with amazement view, 

Tho' one Armenian, and 'twas only one, 

Beyond the youth of Rome degenerate grown, 245 

Soft Zalates, consum'd by equal fires 

Indulg'd our Pathic tribune's foul desires. 

See with what fruits Rome's amity is bought, 

Hither alas ! an hostage he was brought, 

And grew to manhood here ! — ah heed my song ; 

Hence, tender youths ! ye tarry here too long j [250 

You ne'er will want a lover to invite, 

Knives, whips, and bridles, will no more delight. 

Back to Artaxata, no longer priz'd, 

You'll go dishonor'd and demoraliz'd. 255 



%x$ummt 



Of this extremely beautiful Satire, the Argument may 
be given in a few words. Juvenal attends his friend Um- 
britius to one of the gates of Rome, and there parts with 
him, about sun-set, on his final dereliction of the city. 
A number of little circumstances also conspire to make 
this farewell interesting — the place where they separate — 
the removal of the little furniture of his friend— the de- 
cline of the day — are all happily imagined. Umbritius 
here relates, in a strain of animated indignation, often ap- 
proaching to invective, the moral causes of his displea- 
sure with the metropolis of the world ; to which, having 
added more briefly some of its inconveniences, they part, 
the winding up of the piece being managed with infinite 
skill, delicacy, and propriety. This Satire is the great 
repertory of all common-place anathemas against large 
towns — anathemas for ever in the mouths of such as are 
unacquainted with small ones. Almost all that is said 
against Rome, may be said against modern great cities ; 
yet are the lesser evils, on which their inhabitants are 
most apt to dwell, more than equalled by a train of petty 
inconveniences in the country, while in matters of real 
moment, for the improvement of life, the great balance 
Juv. D 



50 

lies wholly on the side of the smoky capital : still one 
would rather live within a league of Babylon, than in it, 

ttjc yag j&sy»arijs 7tqXsco; (Ba/3uXwvoj) syyvg owra, 6o~a fxsv 
opsXsi<r$ixi £(Ttjv onto psyaXys ttoXsu)$ touitu \j,sv w7rsXa.v0fj.sv otra. 
ds svo^XsktSui, o»jta§= fisvpo ctTriovTsg tovtmv sxtto^wv y][xsv. 

Xenoph. Cyrop. vii, 



PERSONS AND PLACES 

MENTIONED IN THE SATIRE. 



PERSONS. 



XjACHESIS, she (of the three fates) who drew off and 
wound from the distaff, according to the elegant alle- 
gory of the Greeks, the thread of human life. 

Arlurius. Calulus, any body whom the cap would fit : un- 
known at least. 

Thais, Doris, the first a courtezan, the second a sea 
nymph ; or, according to Ruperti, scortum nudum, 
nam Aopta^siv pro 7rciga.yvfj.vovv ttoXv tov o-^arog. 
Hesych. 

Demetrius, Stratocles, Hamus, all actors of great repu- 
tation, and all praised by Quintilian. The last men- 
tioned in the vi Satire for the softness of his voice. 

Bareas Soranus. See the Note. 

Protogenes, a villainous informer in the reign of Caligula, 
y\v ds T/j TIgoToysvt\c, irgoc, TtaVTU uvTca to. yaXsn -coTctTa. 
vnypeTcov. He used to carry about two little books for 



51 



registering the suspected, calling one of them his sword, 
the other his dagger. Dio. 1. lix. 

Diphilus, Erimanthus, whether or not real names, un- 
certain. 

Albina, Modia, two rich widows, whose levees were at- 
tended by the Praetors in full dress, and with all their 
retinue. 

Calvina. Catiena, their occupations are obvious from the 
text. 

Cossus. Veiento, the first used for any great man of dif- 
ficult access; the latter (Sat. iv. 113) occurs in the 
procession of Domitian's counsellors, and also as the 
husband of Hippia in the sixth. 



PLACES. 



Cuma, on the shore of Campania, chiefly remarkable for 
the cave of the Sybil. Virg. iEn. 1. vi. 10. But oracles 
were become mute, and Cuma was now unfrequented. 

Baice, a celebrated place of retirement in the Bay of 
Naples, abounding with villas of the Roman nobility, 
and famed for its thermal and sulphureous springs. 

Prochi/ta, an island which is in the Bay, and nearly fronts 
the city of Naples : not, therefore, otherwise unpleasant 
than as being solitary, which it was, and I believe is. 

Suburra, a populous street in the heart of Rome, and so 
put for Rome itself in the xth Satire. 

Media vexillum pono Suburra. 
It seems to have been chiefly a street of trade, hence 
called by Martial ' Clamosa* 

Capena. This gate of Rome, which has now taken the 
name of St. Sebastian, led to the Via Appia, on which 
they travelled to Capua : ' moist,' because an aqueduct 



52 



ran over it, as at present in those instances where our 
canals traverse arches which cross the high roads. 
Martial has an elegant epigram on a boy killed by the 
fall of an heavy icicle from such an arched gateway. 
Qua vicina pluit Vipsana porta columnis. 
Orontes, a river of Syria: near its source Laodicea, and 
Balbec. — Antioch on its southern bank, and six leagues 
from its mouth — At Aleppo — but a small stream. 
Tagus. too well known 

novis annalibm atque recenti 

Historia 
to require mention here. It has carried of late years 
(like Simois) a freight very different from that with 
which it has been laden by the poets, 

covrepta sub undis 

Scuta virum, galeasque etfortia corpora volvit! 
Sky on, a city of Peloponnesus, «rj \ofov egvpvov. (Strabo.) 
Amydon, in Macedonia. 

avTctq nvgui%fLYi$ ays Tlaiovag uywj\oTo%ovs 
.tjjAo0?v e£ Apudwvog. Iliad. j3. 845. 
Andros, one of the Cyclades. 

Samos, an island in the Ionian Sea, opposite to Ephesus. 
Tralles, Alaband, two towns of Asia Minor, the first in 

Lydia, the second in Caria. 
Samothrace, an island in the JEgean Sea, near Lemnos. 
For the history of its gods, and who they were, see Bayle, 
Praneste, a city of Latium, famous for a temple of For- 
tune ; its situation lofty. Here Marius, being besieged 
by Sylla, perished in endeavouring to escape through a 
subterraneous passage. Its modern name Pala?strina. 
Gabii. Also in the Latian territory, between the former 
place and Rome. It has no modern representative, 
( Edam periere ruina,'' 



53 



Tihur, Tivoli. Built on the site of a hill overhanging the 
Anio. The ruins of Adrian's villa (where, among other 
valuable discoveries, the Laocoon, if I recollect, was 
found) are still conspicuous. Here, also, the still more 
celebrated farm of Horace. 

Volsinium, a town of Etruria, the birth-place of Sejanus,, 
whose name will for ever suggest that of Wolsey to 
the English reader. 

Sora, Fabrateria, Frusino. — the first in Latium, the other 
two, Volscian towns, all at an easy distance from Rome. 
Retirement, even in the time of Juvenal, did not imply 
banishment ; it was still to be found 20 miles from the 
capital. 

Aquinum, the birth-place of Juvenal and pf Thomas 
Aquinas— haud cantare pares. 



attre in. 



Altho' my heart grow sad whene'er I dwell 

Upon the mournful theme, a Friend's farewell ! 

Yet must I praise his purpose, nor detain 

Her subject from the Sybil's peaceful reign. 

There, close to Baise, he shall soon explore 5 

Of quiet Cuma the sequester'd shore ; 

For me, my home in Prochyta I'd make, 

Suburra's din too happy to forsake ! 

What place so mark'd by Desolation's curse, 

But Rome and all its train of ills were worse ? 10 

Rome, where one hears the everlasting sound 

Of beams and rafters thundering to the ground, 

Amidst alarms by day, and fires by night, 

And bards — who spite of August still recite ! 

V. 13. Amidst alarms by day. Fires were exceedingly 
common in Rome, often the consequence of popular discon- 
tents and mutinies among the Slaves — Dio Cassius mentions 
four, one before the battle of Actium, a second in the reign 
of Augustus (which burnt the Temple of Vesta), and two 



v. 15 — 16\ Sat. in. Juvenal. 55 

While on the car they placed its little freight, 15 
We halted at the arch, which joins the gate 



under Tiberius; the latter to so great an extent that the 
Emperor gave a large sum for the relief of the sufferers. 
There is a very interesting account in Tacitus (Ann. 1. XV.) of 
the great fire, by which two thirds of the city were destroyed. 
The causes which concurred to make the catastrophe so se- 
rious at that time were, as the Historian relates, the seizure 
in the first instance of some shops filled with inflammable com- 
modities ; a strong wind ; the course of the flames uninter- 
rupted by any Temple or other building surrounded by high 
walls ; and the close narrow Lanes and long Streets of the 
City as it then stood, with but few open spaces intervening. 

It was during this fire that Nero [who was sent for from 
Antium on the occasion,] took his Lyre in order to sing the 
destruction of Troy, ' prcesentia mala vetustis cladibus adsi- 
milansJ It began in the garden of Nero's favorite Tigellinus, 
on which account a rumor got abroad that he had been the 
incendiary by his master's order, who was ambitious of build- 
ing a new City to be called by his own name. — Of the four- 
teen districts into which Rome was divided, four only escaped 
untouched, three were utterly destroyed, the other seven were 
left almost a heap of ruins. 

To mention the number of Temples and public places con- 
sumed by the flames (which raged for six days) would not, 
says the Historian, be an easy task — four, of the highest anti- 
quity, were destroyed. 1. the Temple of Diana, built by Ser- 
vius Tullius, 2. the Magna Ara and the Temple which Evan- 
der had consecrated to Hercules, 3. that of Jupiter Stator 
founded by Romulus, and that of Vesta by Numa — these, 
held peculiarly sacred, (vetustissimce religionis,) and filled 
with the fruits of so many victories, the spoils of the East, and 
the Monuments of Grecian Art, were totally consumed. 



56 Sat. in. Juvenal. v. 17 — 18 

Of moist Capena ; here great Numa came 
To meet at midnight his mysterious Dame ; 



When the work of rebuilding began, Nero, after attempting to 
follow the most extravagant suggestions for the restoration of 
his own Palaces, planning lawns, wood, and lakes, where 
nature had denied the materials, and on spaces which Streets 
had so lately occupied, and after being frustrated in his 
attempt to dig through the Mons Avernus, turned his atten- 
tion to the city, which he caused to be laid out on a regular 
plan, and built to an exact admeasurement ; the ornament of 
Porches, at the front of detached Mansions, he added at 
his own expense ; he forbade the use of wood as much as 
possible, and allowed no wall to be common to two houses : 
— a more beautiful city soon arose ; but as usual there were 
malcontents, who liked the old one better, and complained 
that the broad Streets only exposed them more to the Sun, 
and deprived them of the agreeable shelter they had been 
used to. 

Nero now brought his plans to a conclusion by consulting 
the Sibylline books, to deprecate the anger of the Gods, and 
to protect the new City from mischief. But dwellings for 
the poor had not entered into Nero's views — the palace rose, 
but the hovel was forgotten— amidst the fine structures every 
where appearing, thousands of ruined families were without 
homes, and still loud in accusing Nero, as the author of their 
misfortunes. One last stroke of policy yet remained to 
overwhelm his character with the foulest infamy. He deter- 
mined to accuse the Christians (who were then beginning to 
be numerous at Rome) as the authors of the conflagration. 
We may suppose that in the destruction of so many of the 
Temples, from which they had separated since the preach- 
ing of the Gospel, a plausible pretence in such hands could 
not be wanting. Evidence was at his command, and their 



y. 19 — 22. Sat. in. Juvenal. 57 

How chang'd ! for now a shameful traffic made 
Of fane and fountain ! In the sacred glade 20 

The Exile- Jew has an asylum found, 
And rents, ye gods ! the desecrated ground. 

fate was quietly determined. Aholendo rumori Nero 
subdidit reos et qucesitissimis pcenis adfecit quos per jlagitia 
invisos (how little pains Tacitus had taken to inform himseif !) 
vulgus Christianas appellabat. Auclor nominis ejus Chris- 
tus, Tiberio hnperitante, per PrGairatorem Pontium Pila~ 
turn supplicio affecius erat. 

Thus, he continues, was the destructive superstition for a 
while repressed, but it soon broke out again not only in 
Judaea, where the evil had originated, but at Rome ' the con- 
tinence of all that is abominable and disgraceful.' — Some, he 
tells us, confessed, and gave evidence against a great number, 
who turned out to be not so much ' authors of the fire as 
enemies to the human race at large ! ' 

V. 21. The Exile- Jew. This Temple still remains: 
a very fine print of it may be seen in Piranesi, with the 
Grotto of Egeria in the back ground. As to the baskets 
and the hay, mentioned in the text, but omitted as an 
unimportant feature in the translation — it is enough to notice s 
that they are recorded as badges of poverty which then dis- 
tinguished that mendicant people, so lately driven by Titus 
from Judaea: (For this Satire, if written in the reign of Do- 
mitian, must have been produced, but a very short time pos- 
terior to the destruction of Jerusalem.) What a change ! 
expelled so recently from the noblest Temple in the uni- 
verse, to perform the ritual of Moses in an idolatrous grove, 
it were difficult to say whether the Jews on the abolition, or 
the Christians on the establishment of their Religion, un- 
derwent the greater hardships. The Romans held them alike 



58 Sat. in. Juvenal, v. 23 — 36, 

Yes ! every tree is tax'd, and through the grove, 
Dear to the Muse no more — these vagrants rove ! 
Descending thro* the vale, we pause to view 25 
Egeria's caverns, how unlike the true ! 
And thou, fair Spring ! hadst look'd more like 

divine, 
Did its green margin still thy wave confine j 
And not a marble had the stones displaced, 
Rough and unhewn, which once thy fountain 

graced ! 30 

Here, first Umbritius — since of honest gains, 
By honest arts, no hope at Rome remains ; 
Since from the remnant of my scanty store 
Each morrow still wears off some fragment more ; 
Thither — where Daedalus first touch'd the ground, 
Andbless'd his wings! — my willing steps are bound. 

in contempt, and Tacitus took just as little pains to inform 
himself on the principles of the one, as Juvenal did on those 
of the other. 

V. 36. Thither — where Dmdalusjirsi tonch'd. Juvenal is 
fond of describing places by a periphrasis, in which he makes 
some allusion to their mythological reputation : 
Unde alius furtivce devehat aurum 
Pellicula. Sat. 1. 10. 

Ripa nutritus in ilia 
Ad quam Gorgonei delapsa est pinna caballi. 118. 
Conspicitur sublimis apex cui Candida nomen 
Scrofa dedit, Icetis Phry gibus mirabile lumen 
Et nunquam visis, triginta clara, mamillis. 

Sat. xii. 71. 



v. 37— 52. Sat. in. Juvenal. ,59 

While time is just beginning o'er my brow 

(My strength entire) to cast his earliest snow, 

While yet for Lachesis some thread remains 

And my firm step as yet no staff sustains. 40 

Yes, let me go, — and let Arturius stay, 

And Catulus, and all who know the way 

To swear that white is black, nor e'er disdain 

The lowest, vilest offices for gain ! 

To sweep the kennels, carry forth the bier, 45 

Or mount the rostrum of the auctioneer. 

Once travelling Pipers these ! of vast renown, 

The minstrels of the shew, in every town, 

Who donors now themselves of games become, 

Save or destroy — to please the mob of Rome : 50 

The bloody scene concluded, they retire 

To farm the bogs, and bargain — for the mire ! 

V. 46. Or mount the rostrum,. 

Et pnebere caput dom'ma venale sub hasta. 

As the Poet here collects a number of degrading, but money- 
getting occupations, I incline to think that this line should be 
interpreted as above. We learn that the business of an Auc- 
tioneer was held in contempt at Rome from Sat. vii. 

vendas potius commissa quod audio vendat 
Stantibus. 
For the rest, it signifies little whether they sold themselves or 
any thing else — various modes of Auction for the sale of 
slaves obtained among the Romans. See Dusaulx on this 
passage — those taken in war were sold c sub husta,' those im- 
ported by merchants, sub corona, or if not warranted, sub 
pileo. 



60 Sat. in. Juvenal. v. 53 — 82, 

All things for gain ! and why not all things, pray ? 
For these are Fortune's children, these be they 
Whom the fond Goddess in some sportive hour 55 
From abject meanness lifts to wealth and power ! 

What should /do at Rome, who cannot lie, 
Who neither praise the stupid book, nor buy? 
Who cannot, will not, bid the stars declare 
His father's funeral to the greedy heir ? 60 

Bowels of toads, in search of poisons dire, 
I ne'er explor'd, nor earn'd th' assassin's hire. 
The pander's gainful trade let others know, 
Its crimes I scorn, its profits I forego : 
A knave shall none, thro' my connivance, be, 65 
Say then, my friend, is Rome a place for me ? 
No man's associate, here alone I stand, 
Useless to all, a maim'd and palsied hand. 
Ah ! who is priz'd, except his bosom swell 
With dreadful secrets he must never tell ? 70 

Of debt unconscious, none will condescend 
to bribe, who fears not his accomplice- 
FRIEND, 

Who has entrusted to thy breast's control 
The pure and honest secret of his soul : 
He that makes Verres tremble at his will 75 

Becomes each day to Verres dearer still : 
Thou — tho' the golden sands might all be thine 
Which by th' umbrageous stream of Tagus shine, 
Hold them for nought — ere thou forego thy rest, 
Ere the sad confidence pollute thy breast ; 80 

Oh spurn the bribe — the guilty boon forbear. 
Nor live the object — of a great man's fear ! 



v P 83 — 98. Sat. in. Juvenal. 61 

A race there is (howe'er caress'd and priz'd) 

By me avoided most, and most despis'd ; 

Descendants of Qujrinus ! I abhor 85 

A Greek Metropolis, on Tyber's shore. 

A Grecian, said I, yet, the truth to speak, 

How small a portion of our filth is Greek S 

Into his stream Old Tyber long ago 

Felt the warm current of Orontes flow : 90 

Hence Syrian harps, hence Syrian manners come, 

Their trumpets, pipes, — and that barbaric drum : 

Hie to the Circus — ye that love the band 

Of turban' d harlots from a foreign land ! 

O Sire of Rome ! on these thy children see 95 

The Trechedypna — garb unknown to thee ! 

While Niceteria from Greece proclaim, 

At Roman games, thy Roman wrestler's fame ! 

V. 95. O sire of Rome ! I have called this robe 
(the haunt-dole gown of Holyday,) a garb unknown to Ro- 
mulus. It is at least equally so to us. The best account I 
have seen of it is given by Dusaulx from Mavtinius, who 
says that the conquerors in the Circus Gaines, had a claim for 
thai day to a Dole or Sportula, given by the Emperor (and 
therefore worth running for). They put on a particular gown, 
and with the Niceteria or badges of victory round their necks, 
hasten in this Grecian costume to claim the prizes they 
have earned as Roman athletes. The body of the wrestler 
was oiled with a composition called here ccroma, in order that 
he might the better elude the grasp of the adversary. 

The Collis Viminalis'is the hill alluded to L. 103. of which 
the name brought its former plantations of Osiers to recol- 
lection. 



62 Sat. m. Juvenal, v. 99 — 122. 

From Sicyon, Tralles, Amydon they come, 

From Andros, Samos, Alaband to Rome ; 100 

All seek th' Esquilian, and that other hill 

Of which the name records its Osiers still : 

Into the vitals of each house they crawl, 

Obsequious now — soon to be Lords of all. 

So fluent, free, and impudently bold, 105 

Prompt as Isseus, whom do we behold ? 

Just whom you please — he kindly came to bring 

A genius skilled alike in every thing. 

Thy ready and accomplish'd teacher see 

In Grammar, Eloquence, Geometry! 110 

Physician, Augur, — dealer in Perfumes, 

Dancer on ropes — to Magic too presumes ! 

Your fasting Greek knows all things — bid him go 

A message to the Moon — He'll ne'er say No ! 

That Artist, (to be brief) who first explor'd 115 

Heaven's concave, and on venturous pinions soar'd, 

No Moor was he, nor in Sarmatia fed, 

But in the midst of Athens born and bred ! 

Gods ! from such Purple am I yet to fly? 

Shall they recline on softer down than I ? 1 20 

Before me sign — blown hither by the gale 

That wafted prunes to Rome and figs for sale ? 

V. 119. Gods ! from such purple. I think this passage can 
never be read in the original without renewed pleasure ; it 
breathes such an ardent love of country, which, though a vice in 
the Godwiaian Philosophy, has always been in fact the cradle 
of many virtues. The joining these fellows with a cargo of 



v. 123 — 136. Sat. m. Juvenal. 63 

Was it for nothing, that of Aventine 
The fresh'ning gales in infancy were mine, 
For nothing, that in Roman air I grew, 125 

And my first strength from Sabine olives drew ? 
Ah no ! while adulation's arts conspire, 
They'll bid Deformity itself admire. 
Hear, with attention which ne'er seems to cool, 
The frigid nonsense utter'd by a fool j 1 30 

Bestow on gawky feebleness with ease 
The swelling muscles of an Hercules, 
(When lifted far from earth with mighty stress 
His powerful grasp Antaeus did compress) 
And praise a voice as soothing as the note 135 

Which the shrill cock strains from his sounding 
throat ! 

grocery is excellent. Juvenal well knew the art of inflicting 
degradation — He makes it his boast to have been nou- 
rished on the Sabine olive, as well as to have breathed the 
air of Aventine : Attachment to national food, is one of the 
common objects of patriotic prejudice. The olive still 
florishes as the proper fruit of Italy, and also of Attica, 
where it is yet cultivated by the modem Greek with the great- 
est skill and solicitude. There, it will continue to grow when 
of the buildings of the Acropolis every vestige shall have 
perished : so much of prophetic character belonged to the 
Muse of Sophocles. 

ratSs SaAAs; jaeyjcra %a>£a 
•yXavKtx,; rfouSorgotpov <pv\Xov eXoua; 
to |U,£v rig, ours vaog, ours yyga 

o~y)[j,aivwv uXuuvsi ysgi its§o~cc$. 

CEdip. Colon. 700. 



64 Sat. in. Juvenal, v. 1 37-— 160. 

Who, if we flatter'd, thus would be deceiv'd ? 
The Greek alone may lie — and be believ'd. 

Is he more perfect in mimetic art, 
Who on the stage sustains the actor's part ; X40 
Thais, or robeless Doris, when you'd swear 
Disguise was none, but simple nature there ; 
The sex, without deception, and maintain, 
Below the zone, that all was smooth and plain. 
And yet Demetrius, Hsemus, Stratocles, 145 

On Grecian boards might well despair to please ; 
Their's is a race of actors ; do they see 
Another smile, they laugh outrageously ! 
Weep — they assume the sympathising tone, 
And utter sighs, responsive to thine own ; 150 

Demand a little fire-— the shivering crew 
Bawl for their cloaks, and are as cold as you ; 
Let but a moment pass, and whisper £ heat, ' 
And mark, if only one shall fail to sweat ! 
Oh, 'tis in vain, compar'd to such as these, 155 
Mere fools are we, they can whene'er they please 
Be what they will— prepar'd by night or day, 
The well-dissembled features to display. 
E'en Nature's needs an ample fund supply 
For fulsome praise and filthy flattery, 1 60 

V. 15$. E'en Nature's Needs. There is a line here 
which I leave out for the advantage of the translation. 
Trulla si inverso crepitum dedit aurea fundo. The difficulty, 
however, does not rest in the meaning of Trulla, which, 
means a drinking cup and nothing else, (thqugh there has 



v. 161 — 172. Sat. in. Juvenal. 6£ 

Some latent charm, in every act they trace. 
And swear you belch — with a peculiar grace ! 
None can escape their execrable lust ; 
No wife with them, with them no daughter trust ; 
Trust not, within their reach, thy tender son, 165 
Nay, do not leave thy grandam quite alone — 
The secrets of thy home, their eager ears 
Imbibe, and sift thy follies and thy fears. 
Yet more — frequent their schools, and mark with me 
Deliberate crimes of rob'd Philosophy ! 170 

Yes ! 'twas a scoundrel Stoic's breath that blew 
Destruction on his friend, and pupil too ! 

been much debate about it.) as the following epigram of 
Martial suffices to prove, while it also fixes a sad stigma on 
the faculty of Rome, which consisted in truth, for the most 
part of a desperate set of miscreants, who more than merited 
all ihe compliments which Pliny has in the sincerity of his 
heart bestowed upon them. — See notes on Satire vi. 

Clinicus Herodes Trullam sulduxerat cegro : 
Deprensus dixit : Stulte, quid ergo bibis ? 

Charged with the theft, Herod the cup rcstord 
To his rich patient's hands — its former Lord. 
' So, Sir! — you miss d your cup— full well I knetv 
There was no keeping tuine an hour from you ! ' 

V. If 1. Yes ! 'twas a scoundrel Stoics, fyc. P. Egna- 
tius procured th* 1 death of his friend and pupil liareas Sora- 
nivs, one of the two worthies of whom Tacitus says, that Nero, 
after destroying the virtuous, Virlulem ipsam exscindere 
concvpivit. (Egnatius) ' Tunc emptus, ad opprimendum 
amicum, auctoritatem stoicte scctte prceferebat, habitu et ore 

Jtttu E 



66 Sal. in. Juvenal. v. 173 — 186. 

A genuine Greek ! who came at Rome to dwell, 
Born, where the plume of their fam'd Pack-horse 

fell ! 
Oh, 'tis not fit that Romans should remain, 175 
Where Diphilus and Erimanthus reign, 
Or vile Protogenes, (for Greece with none 
Will halve a friend, but keeps him all her own.) 
If ears too credulous they once abuse, 
And of their venom but a drop infuse, 1 80 

They drive us to the door, our claims despis'd : 
Ne'er was the client yet so lightly priz'd : 
Oh, say, what hopes his futile toils invite, 
Or what rewards his thankless cares requite ? 
Tho' to the patron's, ere 'tis morn, he hie, 1 85 
What time the Praetor bids his Lictors fly, 



ad ejcprimendam imaginem honesti exercitus, animo perfidio- 
sus, subdolus, avaritiam et libidinem occultans.' — 

The next sixty lines describe other striking characters of 
Roman degeneracy. A great magistrate driving on his at- 
tendant officers, to secure the good graces of an old 
woman, whose fortune he looks for, by inquiring for her 
at an early hour — The estimation of character from riches, 
to the absurd and extravagant degree of disbelieving the 
oath of a poor man — The invidious distinctions of place in the 
theatre ; invidious, because new. The Otho, who was the 
author of this arrangement, was not the Emperor, but a Tri- 
bune of the people : A. U. C. 6S5. — He caused a law to be 
passed, which reserved fourteen benches for such as possess- 
ed 400,000 Sesterces, or 400 Sestertia, the equestrian 
census. 



v. 187 — 202. Sat. in. Juvenal. 67 

Of Modia's cough, lest rivals in the trade, 

Their kind inquiries should have earlier made 5 

For what all this, I ask, unless to see 

The slave's descendant, lord it o'er the free, 190 

Who, on some frail Calvina, oft confers 

The costly price of favors, such as hers, 

Or on lewd Catiena casts away 

For one' voluptuous sigh, a Prefect's pay ! 

Whilst thou, if Chione enchants thine eyes, 195 

Her humble price, thy humbler purse denies. 

1 A witness pure as he, whose sacred trust, 

Liv'd Ida's Goddess, sanctimonious, just, 

As Numa's self, or he of greater name, 

That snatch' d Minerva trembling from the flame, 

Produce at Rome, they shall not ask a word [200 

Save this brief sentence, what can he afford ? 



V. 19S. Liv'd Ida's Goddess. The Idaean mother, or 
Cybele, was brought from Phrygia to Rome, by order of the 
Sibylline oracles, which declared the establishment of her 
worship, to]be the only means of procuring the expulsion of the 
Carthaginians from Italy, and as she was obliged to dwell in a 
private house, till a temple could be built for her accommo- 
dation, the office of entertaining her fell on Scipio Nasica, 
as the most worthy man in Rome. L. Csecilius Metellus rescued 
the image here alluded to from the temple of Vesta in flames, at 
the price of his eyes. That Temple was burnt at 
least for the third time, in the reign of Nero. The reason of 
its being so unfortunate, is obviously to be sought for in 
the office to which it was assigned — to nourish constantly the 
sacred fire, dedicated to the Goddess. 



68 Sat. in. Juvenal, v. 203 — 228. 

Where lies his manor ? — know you his estate ? 
Does he give dinners ? does he dine on plate ? 
f 'Tis Money, Money, wanted, or possest, 205 

That forms of Rome's esteem,, the surest 

test : 
To Samothracia's altars and our own 
Dost thou appeal ? thy oath's believ'd by none; 
They think the poor may every bolt contemn — 
What God or Goddess cares to punish them ? 210 

A theme besides, for many a clumsy jest, 
Want's sad exterior lends ; the tatter'd vest, 
The unwash'd gown, the rent which meets the 

view, 
Where the torn leather gapes, on either shoe, 
Or where coarse flax upon the seam ill clos'd, 215 
But makes the wound it joins, the more expos'd. 
'Midst countless ills which vex the poor man's soul, 
The stings of insult far outweigh the whole : 
'What dost thou here? rise, fellow, rise 

AND GO 

' These be the pillows of th' equestrian 
row!' 220 

Yes, quit thy seat ! nor stay to meet the scorn 
Of some rich pimp's descendant — brothel-born : 
Or bawling criers, well-bred youths who come 
To lead th' applause, and guide the taste of Rome ! 
Thanks to vain Otho, whose egregious pride 225 
Would leave no rich man by a poor man's side ! 
Who now, in wealth found wanting, hopes to 
prove 
Or the Sire's favor, or the daughter's love ? 



v. 229 — 256. Sat. in. Juvenal. C9 

Who, in his wits, will make that man his heir, 
Who needs th'estate ?— a paltry iEdile's chair 230 
Shall any poor man fill ? Nay, Romans, nay, 
'Twas perfect madness here so long to stay ; 
In strictest bonds the needy should have join'd, 
And left their country and their cares behind ! 

Oh, Poverty! from thy o'erwhelming 
surge 235 

'tis hard indeed for virtue to emerge ! 
But most at Rome, where it costs high to feed 
One hungry slave : where things of greatest need, 
The meanest hovel, the most spare supply, 
For the day's meal at vast expense we buy : 240 
Where 'tis disgrace to eat on plates of clay, 
Though he that feels it, on the selfsame day, 
Could he partake the Marsian's simple fare, 
Would own he felt not the discredit there ; 
But wear content, an hundred miles -from Rome, 
The coarsest hood of the Venetian loom ! [245 

There still is much of Italy, 'tis said, 
Where none put on the gown except the dead ; 
Where village swains, from pomps and cities far, 
To simple theatres of turf repair ; 250 

Where one familiar farce, one humble stage, 
Has ample charms for all, from youth to age : 
All save the infant ; him the mask alarms, 
To the sure refuge of his mother's arms ! 
There none the benches of distinction claim, 2, 
The same their habits, and their seats the same, 



.'->,■> 



70 Sat in. Juvenal, v. 257 — 274. 

Except the mighty aedile, duly known 
& By the white tunic, which he wears alone. 
' Here, to their station, and their means untrue, 
In gay attire, a thoughtless crowd we view ; 260 
Who, though another's purse the cost defray, 
Are still eternal rivals in display. 
Here all is sold ! the privilege to call, 
And swell the crowd in yonder lordling's hall, 
What costs it, say ? — or what, the boon to share 265 
Of mute Veiento's recognizing stare ? 
One brings his boy's first Tonsure to the fane 
To bear thy part, and join the flattering strain ; 
Good client ! quickly to the Mansion send 
Thy costly cakes, for rascal slaves to vend ! 270 
For rascal slaves — for 'tis thy duty grown 
To feed sleek servants, tho' thou starve alone : 

Who at Prseneste fears, or ever shall, 
Lest on his head descend the mouldering wall ? 



V. 267. One brings his boy's, §c. Pliny says, that the Ro- 
mans began the use of the razor, A. U. C. 4.54, when Tici- 
nius Menas brought over Barbers from Sicily, and that Scipio 
Africanus brought the custom to be of daily use. When the 
beard was cut for the first time, it was customary to deposit 
it in a box, and to consecrate it to some God. The fourteen 
first emperors shaved — Adrian resumed the fashion of the 
beard. Dusaulx. On these occasions the poor clients were 
expected to fill the house libis venalibus, with dainties to be 
sold again ; and, in this way, to increase the wages of the 
great man's servants. He was compelled to give cakes, who 
had scarcely bread for himself. 



v. 275 — 296. Sat. in. Juvenal. 71 

Midst Gabii's groves, Volsinium's woodland height, 

Or the steep cliffs of Tibur's lofty site ? [275 

Here slender props a falling town suspend, 

And loaded with th' incumbent ruin, bend. 

For thus the thrifty steward would conceal 

The perils which yon desperate flaws reveal, 280 

And, while the loosen'd pile yet nods on high, 

Bids us sleep on, in full security ! 

O ! let me dwell, where no nocturnal screams 

Shall break the golden links of blissful dreams ! 

Hark ! where Ucalegon for water cries, 285 

Casts out his chattels — from the peril flies : 

See the third floor in flames involv'd, and smoke, 

In mounting flames ! nor yet thy slumbers broke, 

Who, while it roars below, the furious blast, 

Hast still the privilege— to burn the last S 290 

Beneath thy canopy of tiles above, 

The fellow-lodger of the brooding dove. 

One truckle bed did Codrus once possess, 
(Than little Procula 'twas something less) 
A single cup, for use : six ewers of clay 295 

Rang'd on the cupboard's head : for show were 
they — - 

V. 294. Than little Procula. Most of the commentators 
make this lady the wife of Codrus, for which he is not obliged 
to them, as she occurs in the second satire as ' the passive 
spouse of all the town.' The truth, I believe, is, that this is one 
of the many strokes of oblique humor, in which Juvenal de- 
lights. The lady was short of stature, but too tall to have 
been the companion of Codrus in this celebrated bed. 



72 Sat. in. Juvenal, v. 297 — 326. 

From the same quarry hewn, reclin'd below, 
A Chiron's image ; and, like them, for show. 
Some rolls of Grecian lore had long possest, 
"With swarms of mice, a solitary chest, 300 

There, unmolested, on the songs divine 
Of ancient days, the nibbling vermin dine. 
You call this nothing — true — but, to his cost, 
One night, this nothing the poor Codruslost! 
Depriv'd at once of fuel, clothes, and food, 305 
"With shiv'ring body, and with soul subdued ; 
He finds, to thousands tho' his griefs were known, 
Compassion but from few, relief from none ! 

But, change the scene, and mark, will it be thus, 
When falls the house of great Asturicus ? 310 

Matrons and Lords in cloaks of sorrow clad, 
And Rome itself looks desolate and sad ! 
The courts break up in haste — ah ! now we hate, 
' These dreadful fires ! ' and of the damage prate. 
It blazes still ; but, ere the walls be cold, 315 

One sends him marble, and one brings him gold : 
Works of Euphranor, or of Polyclete, 
On ev'ry side our hapless sufferer greet. 
Of Grecian fanes the choicest ornament 
Officious hands with ready zeal present ; 320 

Books, busts, Minervas, presses, choke the way, 
And plate and coin in glittering display : 
Richer by ruin made, he'll soon restore 
Things costlier far than what were lost, and more ; 
Nor quite without suspicion will retire, 325 

That he perchance set his own house on fire ! 



v. 327 — 348. Sat. in. Juvenal. 73 

If the Circensian games thou canst forgo 
At Fabrateria, Sora, Frusino, 
A pleasant house awaits thee — and the rent ? 
What you now pay, to be in darkness pent ! 330 
There, from the shallow well, your hand might pour 
Refreshing coolness on each opening flower. 
Live there, my friend, and learn to love the spade, 
And the neat garden, which thy hands have made, 
To which the Samian followers might repair, 335 
And find a hundred ample banquets there. 
'Tis something still to have one patch of ground, 
One meagre lizard's solitary bound. 

Worn out by restless vigils, not a few 
Here meet a lingering death — their ails, 'tis true, 
Might from the crude oppression first begin, [340 
Which to the stomach clings, and frets within ; 
But who, that in hir'd lodgings makes his home, 
Can taste of sleep- — a thing of cost at Rome ! 
Where carts, embarrassed in the narrow street, 345 
And the sharp turns, where angry drivers meet, 
With all the squabbles of th' obstructed team, 
Would rouse the drowsy Drusus from his dream ; 



V. 34S. Would rouse the drowsy Drusus. Of this geutle- 
nian, nothing remains for posterity except his somnolency. It 
is in this way that Juvenal often bestows half a line on persons 
not obnoxious to severer stripes. As to the Phoci, or sea- 
calves, Pliny says of them, nullum animal graviore somno 
premilur. 

Mr. Gibbon blames Juvenal for suffering Umbritius here 



74 Sat. in. Juvenal, v. 349 — 358. 

And the sea-calves, awaken'd from their snore, 
Would close their lids in vain, and sleep no more ! 
Swung in his couch aloft, the rich man rides — [350 
The crowd gives way — on, the Liburnian strides : 
He writes, or reads, by turns ; or, if he please, 
Closes the curtain round, and sleeps at ease. 
But, see, it stops — the mighty wave before ! 355 
The thousands in the rear but press the more : 
Here a huge pole is level I'd at my brow, 
A ponderous joist bids fair to crush me now : 



to descend to the petty inconveniences common to all great 
cities, after having so nobly exposed the apostacy of Rome 
from the morals which formerly distinguished her. Yet the 
picture would be otherwise less complete. He has already 
touched upon all the greater motives of his friend's retreat, 
and mentions last the personal inconveniences which con- 
cur with them. The conveniences aud luxuries of the rich are 
no-where so much contrasted with the ill accommodations and 
privations of the poor as in cities : and, were this part of 
the satire less skilfully treated than it is, it most naturally 
serves as an introduction to the fate of the poor slave crushed 
by a waggon in the street, and waiting upon the pleasure of 
Charon, in place of attending his master at supper. — A pas- 
sage of great spirit and interest. 

It is a pity to pass over the excellent, though somewhat 
stale, joke of the correction proposed by one of the commen- 
tators, who, knowing nothing about sea calves, or natural 
history, proposed to substitute vetulis metritis, * old husbands,' 
(who, he says, are apt to be sleepy) for vitulis marinis. The 
story loses nothing in French, where they debate between 
veaux metritis and vieux maris. 



v. 359 — 372. Sal, in. Juvenal. 75 

Here an unwieldy cask my head assails ; 
There a rude soldier, with his iron nails, 360 

Recals my brain confus'd, to sharper woes, 
And stamps the dire impression on my toes. 

But, see, that smoke proclaims the season come, 
When hundreds (with their kitchens) hie them home. 
Why, Corbulo himself could hardly rear 365 

The load of yonder wretched slaveling there, 
With unbent neck, who threads the moving throng, 
And fans the fuel as he stalks along ! 
Into new rags the mended gown is torn 
At every step, while, on its waggon borne, 370 
Moves on the nodding beam — groans heavily 
Yon creaking wain beneath the ponderous tree j 



V. 363. But, see, that smoke. Among the throngs, who 
helped to obstruct the streets of Rome, were crowds of 
slaves, who, at a certain time, attended their masters, it 
should seem, to bring home the meat which the patron 
chose to give away as a compromise for entertaining his 
clients in his house. We have seen that this dole sometimes 
consisted of money : here it is of provisions, which a slave 
keeps hot on a chafing dish. Centum convivte, says Juvenal ; 
the term is used with a sneer ; they were no longer such, but 
mere receivers of alms. The rich no longer received guests of 
this class. Throughout the satires we find this point insisted 
on, that the reciprocal attachment of patroni and clientes was 
at an end, perierunt tempora longi servitii. The rich man sups 
alone ; or, if he invites such persons as these, it is to give 
them inferior fare, and to treat them with insult (Sat. v.). Of 
the same facts, the epigrams of Martial abound with evidence. 



76 Sat. in. Juvenal, v. 373 — 392. 

But, O ye gracious powers! should that break down s 
That axle pil'd with huge Ligurian stone, 
And pour its mountain on the mob below, 375 
What limb, what bone, what feature could you 

know ? 
One monstrous crush would pulverise the whole, 
And leave no more of body than of soul : 
Meanwhile the slaves at home yet unaware 
Of their associate's fate, the bath prepare ; 380 
The strigils, napkins, and the vase of oil, 
Are ready all — alas ! the needless toil ! 
He sits despondent on the gloomy shore, 
Eyes the grim ferryman, the laboring oar, 
The leaky boat, the thick and murky stream, 385 
And doubts the whole, and thinks 'tis but a dream ! 
Nor hopes to cross, who unprovided came 
To pay old Charon's unabating claim ! 

Such are our days : — let a new theme invite, 
And hear the greater perils of the night : 390 

Behold those lofty roofs, from which, on high, 
The loosen'd tile oft wounds the passer by ; 

V. 378. And have no more. That is, leave no more to be 
seen of the one, than of the other. The annihilation of the soul 
most certainly did not make a part of the creed of Juvenal. 
The Romans used the bath at such a temperature, as to pro- 
duce copious sweating : the strigil was an instrument to remove 
it, or a kind of scraper, consisting of a metallic plate, bent 
nearly double, and furnished with two handles, so as to form 
a loop. An engraving of this instrument is given in Holy- 
day's notes. 



v. 393 — 420. Sat in. Juvenal. 77 

Nor seldom, from some lofty casement thrown 
The crack'd and broken vase, comes thundering 

down ; 
See with what force it strikes the flint below 395 
Where the flaw'd pavement tells the frequent blow: 
O ! thoughtless man ! improvident of ill, 
Sup not abroad, ere thou hast sign'd thy will — 
Assur'd, as many dangers thou shalt meet 
As there be open windows in ihe street ; 400 

Too happy ! if with floods from basins full 
They only drench thy head — and spare thy skull ! 

The fiery youth, whom yet no murders stain, 
Frets, like Pelides for Patroclus slain : 
Turns on his face, utters the restless moan, 405 
Sleepless and sad until the deed be done : 
There are whom brawls compose ! — but he in truth, 
Flush'das he is wilh wine, the generous youth 
Marks the long train, and glittering robes afar, 
And saves his courage, for an humbler war. 410 
He shuns the brazen lamp, the torches bright ; 
Me, whom the moon conducts, or glimmering light 
Of which my hands ceconomise the thread, 
He marks for vengeance, unalloy'd with dread : 
And thus begins the fray— (to call it so, 415 

Where he inflicts, and I receive the blow.) 
Full in my way c stand, fellow, stand,' he bawls, 
('Tis prompt obedience, when a madman calls, 
And he too stronger !) c come, sir, quickly tell 
' Whose beans and vinegar within thee swell ? 420 



78 Sat. in. Juvenal, v. 421 — 440. 

6 Say with what cobler didst thou slice the leek, 

* And eat the boil'd sheep's head ? — nay, sirrah, 

speak. 
6 So ! silent ? — There ! take that ! — and that ! — and 

now 
' Perchance the mighty secret thou' It avow, 
6 What porch shall house thee for the night ? in 

sooth, 425 

* Good fellow, thou hadst better tell the truth ' — - 
Or face the storm, or seek inglorious flight, 

In a whole skin look not to sleep to night, — 
To morrow, when he hears your rival's tale, 
Perhaps the prastor may accept your bail ! 430 

Behold a poor man's rights ! insulted, bruis'd, 
Then of the insults he endur'd, accus'd. 
He must implore, that, with what teeth remain, 
For once, they'll let him seek his home again ! 
E'en now, 'twere well, were all our dangers past, 
And of our nightly perils this the last ! [435 

When all is still, and not a hinge is heard 
And every silent door, is chain'd and barr'd, 
The robber bursts upon you, and the knife 
Is in a moment rais'd against your life ! 440 

V. 441. The Pontine marsh. An extensive swamp of many 
miles, contiguous to Rome, and still the source of much of 
its uuhealthiness ; as the wind, blowing from that quarter, at 
the bad season, brings with it the remittent fever common 
to such situations. The Italian physicians relate many sin- 
gular circumstances on this subject, which would be foreign 
to this place to relate. In Juvenal's time it had become so 



v. 441 — 456. Sat. in. Juvenal. 79 

The Pontine marsh, the Gallinarian pine 
The thieves they once conceal'd, to Rome resign ! 
Hark how each anvil rings, each furnace glows 
With forging chains ; almost we might suppose 
That iron would be wanting for the share, 445 
And hooks become, and spades, and mattocks rare ! 
Hail, golden times of kings and tribunes, hail ! 
When Rome possess'd a solitary jail. 
To these, my friend, more reasons could I join — 
But, hold ! I mark long since the sun's decline — 
The cattle wait — th' impatient driver, see ! [450 
Points to the road, and only stays for me : 
Farewell ! forget me not j when sore opprest, 
Aquinum soothes once more thy anxious breast ; 
The much-lov'd shores of Cuma I'll resign, 455 
At his own Ceres and Diana's shrine, 



much the haunt of robbers, as to call for the establishment of 
an armed guard for the protection of the city — It is now in a 
great measure, I believe, drained, but still continues to be 
regarded as one principal source a of the unhealthiness of Rome, 
at a certain season of the year. The Gallinarian forest was 
situated in the bay of Cuma, v\r, avvfyos %ai atxixcuSr^ yy 
Ta.AXivoL$ia.v vXrp xakovtri. This place was, like the Pontine 
marsh, a noted receptacle for robbers. 

V. 444. The conclusion of this Satire is scarcely less 
beautiful than its beginning — indeed the whole piece is so 
full, so complete, so free from abruptness, so happy in its 
opening and conclusion, that it will almost more than any 
other of Juvenal's writings (except the 10th,) interest an Eng ? 
lish reader. 



80 Sat. in. Juvenal, v. 457 — 460. 

To greet my friend, and in his Satires there 
(If they disdain not,) I will gladly bear 
What part I may, — in country shoes I'll come, 
Tread your bleak lands, and share your friendly 
home. 460 



Slrffumen! 



This Satire is perhaps as entertaining as any Poem 
of the kind in existence. It has, however, some abrupt- 
ness in the beginning, and would, undoubtedly, read 
better, if it began with the thirty-sixth line, Cum jam 
semianimem, fyc. The early mention of Crispinus, who is 
not particularly conspicuous in the ridiculous consultation 
about the Turbot, does not seem an happy introduction of 
the main object of the piece : nor is there any thing which 
might not be spared in the first thirty lines. The rest of the 
Satire is remarkably happy; no express record of the times 
could give a better notion of the state of the empire under 
Domitian : This very lively, and well related adventure, 
concludes, however, with a vehemence worthy of the wri- 
ter and of the subject, and the more striking when con- 
trasted with the scornful tone of the lighter parts of the 
piece. 



Juv. 



8:2 



PERSONS AND PLACES 

MENTIONED IN THE SATIRE. 



PERSONS. 

The Persons mentioned in this Satire are for the most 
part reserved for the Notes, as requiring an Introduction 
somewhat more formal. 

TitiiiSy Seius. Nomi?ia nota et passim obvia in Jure 
civili. (Ruperti.) 

Apicius. There were three Apicii, of whom one wrote 
De Opsoniis. But as they were all gluttons, it were 
needless to consider which is specially referred to here. 

Palfurius. Armillatus. Only known by the men- 
tion of Suetonius vita Domit. ' Consulates viri qui per 
Delationes Domitiani gratiam captavere.' 



PLACES. 



Appulia. la Puglia, near the Mouth of the Adriatic, 
and adjacent to Calabria. 

Ancon. Ancona. Doric, because colonized by the 
Greeks — famous for a Temple of Venus, and for a 



83 



fine arch of Trajan which still remains. Ancona is a 
florishing place of trade to this day — Loretto in its vicinity. 

Mtzotis Palus. Sea of Azoff, into which the Ta- 
nais or Don discharges its waters, and which in its turn 
communicates with the Euxine by the Cimmerian Bos- 
phorus. 

Alba. Albano, fifteen miles from Rome, founded 
by Ascanius' — 

turn grains lulo 
At que novercafi sides pralata Lavino 
Conspicitur sublimis apex. — Sat. xii. 70. 

Aricia. La Riccia in Campania, a town situated on 
a hill and till lately the Capital of a dukedom in modern 
Italy. 

Lucrine. The rocks so called were between Baize 
and Puteoli on the Neapolitan coast. In place of this 
famous ''iake there is now a mountain of one thousand 
feet high (which was thrown up in September, 1538.) 
four miles in circumference, with a large crater in the 
top. Monte novo de cinere. Sir W. Hamilton on Vol- 
canoes. 

Circe, Promontory of — near Terracina on the 
coast of Campania. Monte Circello. 

Rutupi. Rutapics. Richborough in Kent, or Sand- 
wich. That part of the Kentish coast still famous for 
its oysters. 

Catti. The inhabitants of that part of Germany 
which is called Hesse in modern Geography ; a people, 
always remarkable for their military prowess. 

Sicambri. The people of the Duchy of Gueldres, 
in lower Germany. 



>atire iv. 



Stand forth once more, Crispinus, and display 
Thy shameless visage in the face of day ! 

V. 1, Stand forth once more, Sfc. Crispinus, with whom 
the reader has already formed some acquaintance ify -he iirst 
Satire, and who is here threatened, but does not seem to have 
been served with a third summons, was a great favorite of 
Domitian. His first prospects on arriving in Rome were no 
better than those of any other /Egyptian adventurer, and how 
he recommended himself to the good graces of the Emperor 
does no-where appear ; but he must have had the qualities 
required for imperial friendship in an eminent degree, seeing 
the disadvantage under which he lay in regard to country : 
for though the flexibility and artfulness of the Greeks and of 
the Asiatics soon opened a road (as we have seen in the last 
Satire) for their preferment at Rome, the case was far other- 
wise with respect to the natives of Egypt, whom the Romans 
always and justly despised as a race of barbarians, infected 
with the vilest superstitions. Nevertheless, we find Crispinus 
filling no less an office than that of Praetor, and in possession 
of all the distinctions which imperial favor, together with the 
acquisition of wealth, could confer. Not, however, exempt 



v. 3 — 14. Sat. iv. Juvenal. 85 

Nor yet dismiss' d — villain ! whose bosom teems 
With vices which no trace of worth redeems ; 
Within whose frame diseased, still passion strives, 5 
And 'midst the wreck of nature, lust survives, 
But still fastidious Lust — which rudely spurns 
The cheap caress, and from the widow turns ! 

In vain the long and stately colonnade 
Tires his sleek mules within its ample shade, 10 
In vain he plants the grove, or rears the dome, 
Or owns whole acres in the midst of Rome ! 
Thebad,by conscience scourg'd, are strange to bliss ; 
Her sharpest pangs then can the traitor miss, 

from the fates of better men, he lost at last his influence at 
Court, became the object of suspicion, and put an end to 
himself. (Tacit. Ann. xvi. 37-) — A few tmits of his private 
life are presented to us in this Satire. 

V. <7. In rain where polish' d marbles, Sfc. Holyday has 
an entertaining Note on the Geslationes, Viridaria, Deam- 
bulaiicnes and Portieus cf the Romans, fie copies from 
Pignori«s an Inscription on one of them, which informed the 
Deambulator when he had walked a mile. 

See also Pliny's Description of his Country House at 

Laurenium. Epist. xviii. Lib. 2. 

IN 

HOC 

POMARIO 

GESTATIONIS 

PER CIRCUITUM 

1TUM ET REDITUM 

OUlNgUIENS 

EFFICIT PASSUS 

MILLE. 



S6 Sat. iv. Juvenal. v. 15 — 28. 

That from the fane to his detested arms 1 5 

Lur'd the chaste Vestal's heaven-devoted charms, 
Then left her, while each throbbing pulse beat high, 
Beside th* expiring lamp, alone to die ! ^ 

Sing we of lighter crimes — yet free were none 
The Censor thus to tempt, save he alone : 20 

But what were shameless profligacy deem'd 
In all besides, Crispinus well beseem'd ! 
In whom quite decent the same acts became 
"Which Titius, Seius, venture not to name ! 
Vain were reproof — -alas ! mere waste of time, 25 
The wretch is viler, than his vilest crime ! 
For a small Mullet once, as tattlers tell, 
Who ever love the wonderful to swell, — - 



V. 15. That from the fane. The following lines allude to 
the punishment inflicted by the severity of the Roman law 
on an unchaste Vestal. An account of its execution on 
Rhea, marked as it always was by circumstances of peculiar 
horror and solemnity, is to be found in Plutarch's Life of 
Numa. The offender, conducted by a mute procession across 
the Forum to the place of her interment near the Colline gate, 
was made to descend a ladder into the sepulchre, and left 
there with a lamp, a loaf of bread, and a cruse of water, the 
opening being immediately closed with earth and stones.— 
That the Romans saw the vast importance to religion of the 
purity of its ministers, is manifest from this horrible severity 
prepared for their delinquency, — a subject which has often 
exercised the pencil of the artist. 

V, 27- For a small mulht, $c. The fish called Mullus 
was not exactly the Mullet, but the ' Surmuht,' as Mr. Du- 



v. 29 — 46. Sat, iv. Juvenal. 87 

Just six Sestertia, (for a fish that weigh'd 
Scarcely so many pounds,) — our glutton paid ! 30 
Now had the high-pric'd morsel been design'd 
Some old, besotted, heirless fool to blind, 
(Price of the largest signet on his will,) 
We had commended much the artist's skill : 
A better reason yet perhaps it were 35 

To court the tenant of yon window* d chair : — 
No ! good Crispinus thought of joys more dear, 
'Twas a fine fish ! — and dinner time drew near ! 
O could i^picius come to life again, 
His frugal meals our tables would disdain ! 40 

But this surpasses ! what, Crispinus, thou ! 
For a few Scales a price like this allow ! 
Around whose loins the rush-wove mat was seen, 
From Egypt's scorching suns the only screen ! 
Why, for a sum less great, one should have thought, 
The Fisherman himself might have been bought ! [45 

saulx translates it, adding the following passage translated 
from Seneca, which serves to shew how easily luxury and 
cruelty associate. 

' Un Surmulet ne par ait pas frais s'il ne meurt dans les 
mains des convives —on I' expose d la vae dans des vases de 
verre : on observe les differentes couleurs par les quell es line 
agonic lenie et douleureuse le fait passer successivement. lis 
en tuent d' auires dans la sauce § les font confire tout vivans.' 

V. 3,5. A better reason still. The Romans were un- 
acquainted (not indeed with glass) but with window panes ; 
the use of which was supplied by thin laminse of lapis spe- 
cularis. 



88 Sat. iv. Juvenal. v. 47 — 60, 

Which here might still for some few acres pay, 

And buy whole manors in Apulia ! 

Now when a court-buffoon in purple comes 

T* eructate every day such costly fumes, 50 

While he digests one solitary fish, 

His modest supper's least expensive dish ; 

Who oft would cry midst Egypt's motley crowd 

Sprats, —not his own, — with intonation loud ; [55 

Whose tuneful voice, thy streets, Canopus, heard, 

Tho' here to all the knights of Rome preferr'd ; 

What may we think his lordly master ate, 

Or what rare dainties fill'd th' imperial plate ? 

Begin, Calliope, — and, Goddess, pray 
Be pleas' d to sit— we tell the truth to day — 60 

V. 53. Who oft would cry, Sfc. 

Vender e municipes pacta mercede Siluros. 

As to the Silurus, the common authorities make it Shad 
fish ; — it certainly was not the Sprat. — However, the fish 
was of the vilest yet not his own : he cried them pacta 
mercede, at so much a day. 

V. 59. Begin, Calliope. This humorous invocation is 
admirably contrasted with the stately line which begins the 
Tale,— a line that defies translation, and deprecates para- 
phrase. 

Cum jam, semianimum laceraret Flavins orb. em. 

The 'last' of the Flavian family was Domitian, a family of 
which, says Suetonius, ' notwithstanding it possessed no images 
' of its ancestors, and although Domitian justly paid the 
' penalty of his crimes, the republic will never repent, since 
* it indemnified them in Titus and Vespasian.' — The baldness 
of Domitian is observable upon his coins. 



v. 61 — 82. Sat. iv. Juvenal. 89 

Come, Virgins of Pieria, prompt the tongue, 
That calls ye maidens yet! that calls ye young! 

While the last Flavius with a daemon's skill 
The half expiring world was rending still, 
When his own Rome insulted, trampled lay, 63 
A bald-head Nero's unresisting prey ; 
Close to the cliffs of Adria's stormy coast, 
Where stands the temple — Doric Ancon's boast — 
It chanc'd, a Turbot of unequall'd size 
(So huge, its owner scarce believ'd his eyes,) 70 
Quite fill'd his net — Mceotic ice more vast 
Than this, conceals not till, the winter past, 
Forth into Euxine's mouth they make their way, 
Fat and lethargic from the long delay. 
The prize which fortune sent to bless his lines, 75 
For Rome's High Priest he instantly designs. 
To buy or sell such dainties who would dare ? 
For pension' d spies were prowling even there — ■ 
With these inquisitors of wreck and weed, 
'Twere fine to hear a ragged boatman plead ! SO 
Prepar'd with matchless impudence to say, 
The fish was Csesar's own, had run away, 

V. 76. Passing by the point of Natural History about the 
torpidity and fattening of the fish, which is from analogy 
not improbable, the English reader will remark, that the 
title of High Priest, Pontifex, which appears harsh to us as 
applied to Emperors, was one of those, as all their coins 
prove, which these persons invariably thought proper to as- 
sume, willing like their successors the Popes to strengthen the 
secular arm by the accession of the spiritual authority. 



90 Sat. iv. Juvenal. v. 83—98. 

Fed in his ponds and fatten'd at his cost, 

They but reclaim'd the fugitive he lost ! 

And truly, with Palfurius if we join, 85 

Or, Armiilatus, heed that tale of thine, 

All that is large and rare, where'er it swim. 

Is forfeit, and belongs of right to him ! 

A present then the man will wisely make 

Of what his friends at hand were sure to take. 90 

The sickly autumn to the chilling blast 
Of winter's earliest storms was yielding fast ; 
Their quartans now the sick began to dread, 
The fish would keep ! — yet on the traveller sped 
With unremitting haste, for well he knew, 95 

That he must fly as tho* the South wind blew ! 
And now he saw and now approach'd the lakes 
Where Ancient Alba's Town not yet forsakes 

V. gS. The expression quartamm sperantibus tegris has 
been the fruitful parent of many ample Notes. Spero as 
well as BXitiL,'jj occasionally signifies apprehension in place of 
hope— corresponding: expressions in Greek to that in the 
text are, ripuigins EATCI2 ou tf^oryyays ?w Sixaiy tov avQg:tj- 
%w.— av?nra.\M£. ya§ r£siv HAI1IZ0N. 

Dusaulx indeed suggests that the sick might have really 
unshed for agues (as we hear gout wished for) from a notion 
that it would release them from other disease — (and this to he 
sure was an old notion with regard to this particular disease, 
en which account somebody took the pains of writing a 
book ' De limitandis febrium lauditms.') But the context 
shows that the shuddering convalescent began to anticipate 
by some precursory symptoms a return of his old quartan, " 



v. 99 — 108. Sat. iv. Juvenal. 91 

Her lesser Vesta, — then the porch he gain'd, 

(On such an embassy not long detain'd). , 100 

On the smooth hinge the gates expanded wide, 

And through th' excluded Fathers, on he hied : 

Th' excluded Fathers saw th' admitted fish, 

Then to Atrides he presents the dish. 

' Accept, we humbly ask, illustrious Sire, 105 

4 A boon too great for any subject's fire. 

4 Glad be the day, relax, my Liege, with haste 

' The royal bowels for this rich repast ; 

One MS. makes them inhale the miasmata of ague ' spiran- 
tihus cegris.' 

V. 99. Her lesser Vesta. The worship of the greater 
Vesta was held at Rome ; the perpetual fire, [the pledge of 
the duration of the Empire,] being there maintained in her 
Temple. Hence it was so frequently burnt, through the 
carelessness of the Vittatse, who had sometimes, as we find 
from the Tale of Crispinus, other engagements on their 
hands. 

V. 102. Th' excluded fathers, fyc. The letting in of the fish is 
inimitably humorous, and the flow of the verse delightful — Fa- 
ciii patuerunt cardine valvce. — A Turbot desiring to be caught 
and eaten by an Emperor! An excellent lesson for the flatterer, 
and deserving a place in the chapter ' irs^i xo\azsix$.' — The 
picture of the Council which follows is, as Mr. Gibbon 
observes, one of the most finished pieces of satire in existence. 
The procession seems to move before us with graphical dis- 
tinctness ; Pegasus who runs, rapta abolla ; the quiet, easy- 
tempered Crispus, who owed his 80th solstice to disarm- 
ing qualities ; the belly of Montanus, the caucus adulator ; 
all are brought before us in strong and masterly outline. 



92 Sat. iv. Juvenal. v. 109 — 126. 

* And condescend our Turbot to devour, 

c Kept for thy age and This auspicious hour ! 

* Which sure i am, — the fish himself de- 

si r'd/ [110 

The bristles rose ! his vanity was fir'd,— - 
Grossness itself 'twere needless to refine ; 
For one for ever told that he's divine. 

But now, alas ! no vessel could be found 115 
Meet to receive the Turbot 5 s ample round ; 
A Council then is summon'd to advise 
What shall be done with this imperial prize ; 
They meet ; — the objects of their Tyrant's hate— 
On every saddening countenance there sate 120 
The pale dejected look which still attends 
All such high Friendships, all such fearful Friends ! 
First of the crowd, soon as the voice was heard, 
6 Run, run, he sits'- — Old Pegasus appear'd. 
'Twas his to rule the stunn'd and palsied town, 125 
A sort of bailiff— in a prefect's gown. 

V. 126. A kind of Bailiff— Aitonitce positus modo 
viUicus urhi, words which will represent the situation of the 
representatives of a tyrant in all times, whom he mocks with 
the shadow of an authority which they dare not exercise 
according to the dictates of their conscience. 

The meaning of aticniice in this passage, as applied to the 
city, has been questioned. I think it means stunned, as if by 
a violent blow or thunderbolt, e^povrrjrof, sjj.ttKextos, in 
which senseless state Home was given over to the person in 
the text. 

Pegasus, said by the 'old' Scholiast (an old friend of all trans- 



v. 127 — 132. Sat. iv. Juvenal. 93 

What more were prefects then ? yet in his trust, 
Confess'd by all impartial, faithful, just ; 
Tho' well he knew that in such times abhorr'd, 
Justice must ever wield a powerless sword. 130 

Next Crispus came, Crispus who ever smil'd, 
And like his eloquence, his manners mild ; 
What mighty ruler of the land and sea 
Had e'er possest a wiser friend than he, 
Might human voice have ventur'd to assuage 1 35 
Of Rome's great scourge, the sanguinary rage ? 



lators) to have been so conversant with law as to have been 
called ' a Book.' His motto as a Magistrate we read above 
' inermi justitia.' 

V. 131. Next Crispus came. It was this facetious old 
Senator, who replied to the inquiry of some one whether 
any body was with Don.itian, (on seeing him come 
out of the Emperor's apartment.) ' Ne musca quidem ;' in 
allusion to the Emperor's amusement of killing flies — ' qtias 
stylo preeacuto configebat.' That a difference of opinion about 
the weather might have beeu fatal to a friend of Domitian, will 
tfot be discredited by the reader of Suetonius, when he finds 
that /Elius Lamia was put to death, ob suspiciosos quidem, 
verum et veteres, et innoxios joeos-~of which two are record- 
ed. The wife of Lamia had the misfortune to please 
Domitian, and was of course forcibly taken from him: after 
this event he replied to some one who praised his voice — 
' Mine] I am dumb' — Hen taceo! To Titus the brother of 
Domitian, who advised him to marry a second time, he wit- 
tily replied xat crv ya^Toci dsXsi; ; — of this Crispus, however. 
Tacitus says, inter potentes potius quam bonosjuit, 



94 Sat. iv. Juvenal, v. 133 — 148. 

But what more fearful favor than to gain 

A tyrant's ear, with whom the wind, the rain, 

Sunshine and clouds alike, occasion lend 

To seal the fate of an unhappy friend ! 140 

He therefore ne'er oppos'd a fruitless force. 

Nor stretch'd his arms against the torrent's course : 

Not one of those intrepid souls, that dare 

Unwelcome truths, when needful, to declare ; 

Their lives the stake ! — thus arm'd, from mischief 

free, 145 

An eightieth winter had he liv'd to see. 

A friend of years scarce fewer than his own, 
Acilius follow'd with his hapless son, 

V. 147. A friend of years, Sfc. Dusaulx reads this pas- 
sage differently from all the critics by altering the punctua- 
tion : 

Sic multas My ernes atque octogesima vidit 

Solstitia ; his armis ilia quoque tutus in aula. 

Proximus ejusdem properabat Acilius cevi, 

Cum juvene indigno, Sfc. 
He very justly remarks that according to this punctuation 
Acilius and his attendant are invested with no character (like 
Gyas and Cloanthus) and proposes to place the point at 
Solstitia, and to remove it from Aula. This is, I think, an ex- 
cellent alteration though not noticed in the edition of Ruperti. 
1 do not join in the abuse of this good German, from whose 
work I have received very great assistance, while its copious- 
ness has saved me much unfruitful labor ; his commentary is 
indeed redundant, as what commentary is not I This is an evil, 
I fear, inherent to an explanatory book upon any subject : 
it must contain a great deal which half its readers already 
know, for the sake of the other half. A Reviewer, I have been 



v. 149 — 164. Sat. iv. Juvenal. 95 

Who ill deserv'd his fast-approaching fate, 

An early victim, of the tyrant's hate. 150 

But an ag'd noble had been long ago 

A prodigy at Rome ! a kind of shew, 

(O may the Gods to me much sooner send 

A GIANT BROTHER, THAN A ROYAL FRIEND !) 

Naught it avail'd, that he would oft engage 155 
With fierce Numidian bears on Alba's stage, 
Unarm'd, alone — for who but comprehends 
The Arts on which a great man's breath depends ? 
Thy gestures, Brutus, who would now believe ? 
When kings wore beards—'twas easier to deceive. 

Not less disturb'd, tho' of ignoble race, [160 
Old Rubrius came, with terror in his face ; 
An old offence, not to be nam'd again, 
Clung to his fame an everlasting stain — - 

told, not unfrequeutly gains much ostentatious knowledge 
from the very Author he proposes to dismember, nor can I 
reasonably doubt that a Translator is occasionally liable to 
the same accident of forgetting or ill-requiting his obliga- 
tions. — Considering the civilities which Authors and Com- 
mentators sometimes receive in return for the information they 
have communicated, they might not seldom adopt the com- 
plaint of the goat in the epigram : 

tw ATKONfg IAIX1N MAZX2N i^w ovk s9e Awcra. 
But to return to Acilius and his son ; nothing is known 
of either of them from history. His counterfeited madness, 
it seems, could not evade the sagacity of the Emperor. Of 
Brutus, whose example he followed, the story is well known, 
that after the death of his brother, he eluded a certain par- 
ticipation in his fate by counterfeiting madness, and under 



96 Sat. iv. Juvenal. v. 165 — 168. 

More vile than he, whose pen could ne'er desist 
From Satire — Gods ! a pathic satirist ! — [165 

And now the belly of Montanus comes ; 
Crispinus next, all reeking with perfumes 

that disguise prepared an occasion for the ruin of Tarquisi. 
Rubiicus is as little known as the two persons who precede 
him in the procession. The pathic satirist was unquestionably 
Nero. Tacit. Ann. xv. 

T. \67\ Of Montanus, the Scholiast says, " this is he of 
wliom mention is made in Tacitus Histor. L. iv." So it has 
been generally thought, perhaps not correctly, for the cha- 
racter of that Montanus in whose speech we meet with the fol- 
lowing sentences, will not fit the Montanus of Juvenal. An Ne- 
ronem extremum dgtninorum pvteiis ? idem crediderautqui Tibe- 
rio, qui Caio Caligulte superstites fuerunt, quum interim intes- 
tahilior et savior exortus est : who, after complimenting the 
moderation of Vespasian, continues <e elavgidnius, paires con- 
scripii, nee jam tile senalus sumus, qui oeciso Nerone delaiores 
et ministros more mqjorum puniendos Jlagitabat." He 
that cherished a hatred of tyranny, through the reigns of Nero, 
Galba, Olho, and Vitellius, some of whom were not wanting in 
popular qualities, would hardly be made a convert by such a 
wretch as Domitiau. He is made conspicuous by Juvenal, for 
adulation and gluttony, he is not represented as merely playing 
a part, but as exhibiting his natural character. Probability, 
then, is against the identity of these counsellors. 

The same Montanus too is mentioned In company 
with Thrasea and Helvidius by Marccllus, who invites 
the Senate to proceed against them all, as persons who 
put the shite in danger, i. e. as patriots. The specific 
accusation of Montanus was that he wrote ' delestanda car- 
mina.' In the issue of these prosecutions, when Thrasea and 
Helvidius were condemned, one to death, the other to banish- 



v» 169—172. Sat. iv. Juvenal. 97 

More than enough to scent two corpses, join'd 
The mute procession, and mov'd on behind. 170 

The next was Pompey, whose insidious breath 
Was sure destruction, and whose whisper, death j 



ment, the life of Montanus was granted to the influence of 
his father. Montanus patri concessus est, prcedicto ne in 
Repuhlica haberetur. Tacit. Ann. xvi. 28. 

V. 171. The next was Pompey. This person is only known 
to posterity by the line which commemorates his skill, tenni 
jugulos aperire susurro. It were needless to return to Crispinus 
for the sake of his amomum, or for the discussion of its 
epithet matutinus. There can be no doubt the satire is 
levelled at the use of the perfume, at an unusual time 
— the morning — and in a shameful profusion as to quantity. 
The amomum (from which the word mummy is derived) was 
a spice. The natural history of the tree which produces it, is 
given in Pliny, 1. 1-2, 13. The Roman perfumes were chiefly 
certain oriental gums and compounds of Spiceries. See the 
Delphin edition of Persius on the lines, 

Urnce 
Ossa inodora ; sen spirant cinnama surdum 
Sen ceraso peccent casice nescire paratus. 
Fuscus twice commanded the armies of Domitian against 
the Dacians. Veiento was introduced to us in the third satire, 
as one of the great men whose recollection of their inferiors 
it was sometimes necessary to prompt. 

The anecdote of Catullus, alluded to in the text, of his ten- 
dency to fall in love after losing his sight, disproves the adage, 
sk 'fou ooav yiyvsrai to sgav. Of him nothing whatever is 
known, except what Pliny says, L. I v. Epist. 22. * That he 
had a soul as dark as his body, aud was not only cursed with 
want of sight, but also with want of humanity ; that uninfluenced 
JlW. G 



98 Sat iv. Juvenal. v. 173 — 190. 

And Fuscus, who was meditating war, 

Safe in his marble halls from dangers far, 

Nor dream'd that Dacian vultures should at last 

On his own bowels make their crude repast. [ 1 15 

Discreet Veiento with Catullus ran, 

Destructive wretch ! a deadly foe to man : 

(Who burnt with lust for charms he could not see) 

Even in these times of ours, a monster he 180 

Of rare occurrence — for tho' blind as night, 

He flatters on — a dreadful satellite ! 

Worthy the bridge where oft he us'd to stand, 

And to the passing chariot kiss the hand 

Or whine for alms, where up Aricia's hill 1 85 

Creeps round its axle the retarded wheel. 

None was more struck than he, and much he said, 

And turn'd him to the left— the fish was laid 

Upon the right — so, loudest of the pit, 

The flying boys, the skilful swordsman's hit, 1 90 



by either fear, shame, or compassion, he was a proper instru- 
ment in the hands of Domitian, to execute his black purpo- 
ses against every man of worth.' 

This character of Catullus, then long dead, was given by 
some one at the table of Nerva. ' What would have been 
his fate,' said the Emperor, ' if he had liv'd now 1 ' ' To have 
supped with us,' was the reply. 

As to the ' pegma,' the stage machinery, and trap doors of 
the Roman theatre, I find every description so unsatisfactory, 
that I will not detain the reader with a subject so uninterest- 
ing and unprofitable. 



v. 191—218. ' Sat. iv. Juvenal. 99 

He would applaud, and resolutely tell, 

' He never knew the thing done half so well.' 

And yet Veiento match'd him — as possest 
With all the phrenzy of Bellona's priest ; 
He views the fish in rapture — then aloud,— 1 95 

* Behold the omen of some triumph proud ! 

* Some captive king ! Yes ! from the British car 

* They hurl Arviragus, and end the war. 

s The fish is foreign — far unlike our own ; 

' See on his back those bristling stakes of bone !' 200 

Two things, in short, alone he fail'd to name, 
The Turbot's age ; the spot from whence he came. 

' How say ye, Fathers ? what do ye advise ? 

* Shall it be cut ?' 6 cut,' old Montanus cries ? 

4 The Gods forbid ! no, rather, sire, prepare 205 
' A vessel worthy of a boon so rare ; 

* Whose walls' extensive Margin shall embrace 

* The huge circumference with ample space : 

* Go, fetch Prometheus ! not an hour's delay ! 

* The wheel bring hither, and the plastic clay — 2 1 
6 But hence, O Caesar ! ne'er encamp again, 

' Without some skilful potters in thy train.' 

All heard the speech, and all approv'd the plan, 
Which, was, indeed, quite worthy of the man : 
For he was skill'd in each luxurious rite 215 

Of former reigns, and thro' the livelong night 
Had drank with Nero, till the maddening brain 
Grew hot, and appetite return' d again ! 



100 Sat. iv. Juvenal, v. 219 — 236. 

None in my time the science better knew, 

By many practis'd tho' profess'd by few : 220 

At the first taste, he'd tell where oysters fed, 

Whether far off, on the Rutupian bed, 

Deep in the bay of Lucrine's rocky shore, 

Or where the waves round Circe's breakers roar— 

His practis'd eye taught him at once to name 225 

The very spot from which the Lobster came ! 

Rises the Prince. — The council at an end, 
Forth from the hall of state their steps they bend, 
Scarce yet recover'd from the panic fear 
That at this sudden summons they should hear,230 
The Catti or Sicambri were in arms, 
Or that some letter big with new alarms, 
In haste, from earth's remotest corners come, 
On hurried Pinions had been brought to Rome. 

O that such trifles, frivolous and vain, 235 

Had fill'd each hour of that detested reign ! 



V. 219- None in my time. The Romans at this lime were 
guilty of the almo3t incredible luxury of sending to Britain 
for oysters ; not because they had none, or good ones, but 
merely seeking variety of flavor. The oyster was always a 
very favorite luxury of the Romans ; and Holyday illustrates 
this very aptly by citation from a commentary on ' The Frag- 
ments of Ennius his Phagetica,' in which the Cyzicen oyster 
is preferred to all the rest, Cyzicena majora Lucrinis, dul- 
ciora Britannicis, suaviora Edulis, acriora Lepticis, pleni~ 
or a Lucensibus, sicciora Coryphantinis, teneriora Istricis, 
candidiora Circeiensibus. This passage, I have since observed, 
is quoted by Pliny. 



y. 237 — 242. Sat. iv. Juvenal. 101 

When, of her noblest citizens depriv'd, 

Rome daily mourn'd — and yet the wretch surviv'd, 

And no avenger rose ! but when the low 

And base-born rabble came to fear the blow, 240 

And coblers trembled — then, to rise no more, 

He fell still reeking with the Lamian gore. 



V. 242. He fell, Sfc. The murder here alluded to, has 
been already mentioned : it was that of iElius Lamia. Note 
on 1. 126. I do not think the name stands for the Roman 
nobility at large, but rather that it designates the peculiar 
opprobrium of destroying such an illustrious person, for such 
3 cause ; but the point is of the smallest importance, 



Sttgument. 



The unity of subject which pervades this Piece is undis- 
turbed by any of those digressions in which Juvenal delights. 
It was written for the single purpose of exposing that 
wretched degradation of character, which submits to the 
insults prepared for the Parasite, as well as the brutality 
which inflicts them, and it is altogether a curious docu- 
ment of Roman manners in that age, and of the style of 
a Roman entertainment. 



103 



PERSONS AND PLACES 
MENTIONED IN THE SATIRE. 



PERSONS. 

Of these there are but few to be noticed, and none of 
them important. 

Sarmentus. Galba. Two distinguished buffoons, the 
one at the court of Augustus, and mentioned by 
Horace in his journey to Brundusium : the second at 
that of Tiberius. 

Trebius, probably a mere name, at least unknown. 

Thrasea, Helvidius. See the Note on the passage 
where their names occur. 

Virro. Nomen Divitis. vide Sat. ix. 35. 

Micipsa, the son of Masanissa, a name well known from 
its connexion with the Jugurthine war, which had its 
origin in the legacy of his realm, bequeathed by 
this Numidian Monarch jointly to his two sons and to 
his nephew, who disagreed accordingly, as such lega- 
tees are wont to do. 

Bocchor, also a king of Numidia. Liv. xxxix. 30. 
Another of this name was one of Syphax's Generals. 
Liv. xxix. 31, 32. 

Lenas, a Captator hereditatis by profession. The for- 
tune hunters of Rome were better speculatists than 



104 



those of modern times, and avoided the incumbrance 
of a wife : they looked out for the old, the childless, 
the relationless, the diseased, the fond of presents. 
One of these personages is admirably delineated by 
Lucian. AlAA. NEK. 5. 

Amelia, a feigned name. 

Seneca, Piso, Cotta. Who these Persons were, so com- 
mended for their liberality, (with the exception of Sene- 
ca, who is too well known to be the subject of a brief 
Note,) is not ascertained. The Piso of Tacitus, to 
whom Ruperti refers, was not a character whom Juve- 
nal would have placed in this honorable prominence. 
Tie gave, but always for an end. 

Alledius, also unknown. 

Mycale. The bonne amie of Trebius, says Ruperti, 
rather than his wife, adding singularly enough, si hoc 
esset uxoris, non pellicis Nomen, poeta unum piterum, 
non tres pueros dhisset. I know not on what theory 
this curious remark is founded. 



PLACES. 



Vena/rum, a town of Campania, near which the olive 

particularly florished. 
Taurominium, Taormini, on the Eastern coast of Sicily. 



attre v. 



J_F still thy sordid end, devoid of shame, 
Thou canst pursue, thy doctrine still the same, 
That 'tis the greatest good to mortals known, 
To dine at any table, but their own ; 
If what Sarmentus, Galba, had abhorr'd, 
E'en at proud Caesar's ill-assorted board 



V. 4. To dine at any table ; or eat on any trencher, 
aliena vivere quadra ; a proverbial expression, of which the 
discoveries of Herculaneura have supplied another interpre- 
tation ; on the museum at Portici are preserved two loaves 
found at Herculaneura. These are marked at the top by two 
transverse fissures, to show an intended division into four 
parts. ' It is thus' says Winkelman, « that the loaves of the 
Greeks were marked from the earliest ages, and hence called 
by Hesiod oxTa(3\u:[j,oi or 8 dented. The loaf marked for 
division into 4 parts was called by the Romans quadra, by 
the Greeks rstgagvpos : hence, aliena vivere quadra, to live 
on another man's loaf — (Winkelman's Account of Discoveries 
at Herculaneura). These interpretations are all equally good 
as to the sense, but the last seems most likely to be correct. 



106 Sat. v. Juvenal. v. 7 — 32. 

Thou still canst bear ; believe me, I'd be loth 
To place implicit credence on thine oath. 

Mere hunger's claims are few and soon supplied ; 
But grant its slender wants were still denied, 10 
Is there no bridge, at which to take thy stand, 
Where ragged mendicants extend the hand ? 
Is one poor meal of insult worth the care ? 
And is there nought but hunger hard to bear ? 
Beg, beg at once — 'twere a less humbling sight 15 
While passers-by behold thy piteous plight, 
Rejected scraps with eager teeth to seize, 
And rob the dogs thy famine to appease ! — 

But come, compute the profits of the trade- 
By one such meal they reckon overpaid 20 
Thy suit and service all ; they count the treat, 
These generous friends — and cancel all, with meat. 
If the great patron in two months or three, 
His long neglected client deign to see 
(When some mischance prevents the lookM-for 
guest, 25 
And the third pillow would remain unprest) 
O what delight to hear the iordling say, 
' You're not engag'd, pray dine with me to 

day? 5 
What more would Trebius ? will he think it hard 
To break his slumbers for this proud reward ? 30 
Doubtless, for such a favor, he should fly, 
His latchets loose, — he cannot stay to tye, 



v. 33 — 38. Sat. v. Juvenal. 107 

Lest the saluting circle should have past, 
And he prefer his compliment the last, 
What time the planets gleam with dubious light, 35 
And the slow team still marks the reign of night. 
The day, — the hour arrives, — the time to dine ! 
But O ! at such a meal ! and for the wine, 



"V. 33. Lest the saluting. The 1st part of tlie Client's 
duty was to pay his respects to his Patron at an early hour at 
his own home, (of which custom it is to be presumed the 
modern Levee is a derivative). The next, to attend him from 
his door to the forum or places of public business ; in short, 
to appear with him in public ; the last, to escort him back 
again : the whole of which employments may be collected 
from Juvenal. The phrase, * peregere orlerri therefore, 
scarcely means to perform ' the round of visits' as it is 
generally interpreted, because these onerous duties could not 
be conveniently discharged to more than one individual;- — 
and besides, that interpretation is incompatible with the prin- 
ciple of this Institution. The protected were indeed nu- 
merous, according to the consequence and rank of the 
protector ; yet each Client could have but one Patron. It 
should seem a more happy explanation of the phrase s 
that the attendants stood round the great man : that 
mode of disposing a crowd being found convenient from 
the first circles down to the extemporaneous pugilism fami- 
liar to the English reader. This ceremonial of visiting 
consumed from 6 till S o'clock ; hence a poor client complains 
below, of the cold and dew of the morning, — a hardship 
also noticed by Martial. 

Prima, sahdantes at que altera conlinet hora. 



108 Sat. v. Juvenal, v. 39 — 52. 

So thick and turbid, you might try in vain, 

Thro' coarsest wool the feculence to strain ! 40 

So crude and fiery, that one soon shall view 

No longer guests, but Corybants in you ! 

The squabbling prelude is perform' d, and now, 

While the stain' d napkin wipes the bleeding brow, 

Swift flies the ponderous pitcher, smokes the war, 45 

Midst volleys of Saguntum's flinty jar ! 

A fight not seldom fought between the guest, 

And the rude cohort that attends the feast. 

Meanwhile the produce of some vintage rare, [50 

When rough and bearded Consuls fill'd the chair, 

Or press'd from grapes which haply might produce., 

Pending the Social war, their precious juice, 



V. 59- So thick and turbid. All the ancient wines were 
thick till they attained a considerable age, which arose 
from the custom of pouring the juice at once as soon as it 
Mas pressed, and before the lees could subside, into the large 
vessels wherein it was to be preserved. These vessels being 
immoveable, the modern management of wines in them was 
altogether impracticable, the fermentation was performed 
in the cask, and the lees necessarily remained. Hence 
they used a strainer, before drinking their wines, which was 
called rfiuAc — colum vinarium ; two of these instruments are 
preserved in the cabinet of the King of Naples. I conceive 
from all this, the interpretation which 1 have adopted of the 
passage, (for it is a disputed one) 

Vinum quod succida no! it 

Lana pati » 

is the most probable. 

V, 46. Midst vollies of, fyc, Happy had it been for 



v. 53 — 58. Sat. v. Juvenal. 109 

The host shall quaff, but not a cup shall send 
To warm the aching bowels of his friend. 
To-morrow Alba's wine shall grace the board, 55 
Or Setian, brought from that interior hoard, 
That ancient cask, where time, and smoke, and dust, 
Spread o*er the date an indurated crust. 



Saguntum (Murviedro) if its fame had descended to posterity 
only as an inferior pottery ! The melancholy tale of its re- 
sistance to the arms of Hannibal under the pressure of the 
most severe famine, is well known ; better even than its bom- 
bardment by French cannon but four years since.— This its 
last capture seems to have required and to have exhausted all 
the resources of the modern art of besieging. Its manufac- 
tory of pottery is mentioned both by Pliny and by Martial. 

V. 57. That ancient cask. The largest wine vessels of 
the ancients were called dolia ; next to these were the 
amphora ; both were made of baked earth and had small 
necks sealed with gypsum, or pitch : the dolhim contained 
1 8 amphora, which measure is written on such a vessel still 
preserved in the Album vineyard. In a vaulted cellar at 
Herculaneum several amphora were found fixed by brickwork 
to the wall. The amphora is computed to have held 40 
gallons ; The cadus, a smaller vessel, 15. We learn, however, 
from the same authentic source of illustration, that the 
ancients were no strangers to the art of making casks bound 
by hoops. In the Cabinet of the Roman College, two men 
are represented on a lamp, carrying such a vessel suspended 
by a pole. Many amphora were found at Pompeii ; some of 
them with inscriptions in paint, — Such as Herculanenses 
Nonio. The ancients, it is well known, recorded the age of 
their wine by the name of the Consul for the year. 



110 Sat. v. Juvenal. v. 59 — 62. 

Such, once a year, old Thrasea, crown'd with flowers 
With good Helvidius drank,— for festive hours 60 
Reserv'd with patriot care, the precious wine — 
To keep thy birth-day, Brutus ! Cassius, thine \ 

V. 60. Such, once a year, fyc. Thrasea and Helvidius 
were two illustrious characters iu the reign of Nero, 
scarcely less conspicuous for republican virtues than the 
worthies whose birth days they are here beautifully intro- 
duced as celebrating. The Muse of History has also claimed 
them ; and the last words of the Annals of Tacitus are con- 
secrated to the last moments of Pvetus Thrasea. 

This brave man had alarmed the suspicion of Nero by 
his steady refusal to participate in the abject crimes of a 
Senate devoted to the tyrant, and which he had ceased to 
attend from the moment at which he found himself a mere 
spectator of its iniquities. Twice had he quitted this assem- 
bly during its deliberations : the first time when they were 
proceeding to pass a vote that Agrippina's birth-day should 
be numbered 'inter dies nefastos" (a distinction which no doubt 
he thought more appropriate for that of her parricide Son). 
The second occasion was, when this assembly was about to 
decree divine honors to the infamous Poppaea. 

As this illustrious patriot had imbued his son-in-law, Helvi- 
dius Priscus, and others, with the same noble sentiments, the 
wretched assembly, which still dishonored the name of Senate, 
were easily prevailed upon to condemn him, at the instance of 
their execrable Master, and he is represented as receiving the 
officer who came to execute it, in his garden, where he was. 
holding a conversation with the philosopher Demetrius, on a 
subject of which the importance was enhanced to him by the 
anticipation of his approaching fate, ' de natura animee et 
dissociatione spiritus corporisque inquirebat.' He attends the 
officer into his bed-chamber, extends both his arms, of which 



v. 63—66. Sat. v. Juvenal. Ill 

And next in Virro's hand display'd, behold 
With dazzling beryl deck'd, and bright with gold 
The amber cup, but not my friend for thee, 65 
Or if for once, in closest custody ! 

the veins were immediately opened, and on the first starting 
of the blood, exclaims with a spirit worthy of his favorite 
patriot, ' We make this libation to Jove, the Liberator. Look, 
young man, — may the Gods avert the omen, — but thou art 
fallen upon evil times, in which it is well to confirm thy 
courage by every example of resoluteness.' 

V. 6*5. The amber cup, but not, S?c. That amber, the sub- 
stance here meant under the periphrasis heliadum crusics, 
should have been regarded as a concrete vegetable juice by 
Dioscorides and Pliny, is sufficiently accountable : The gum 
from Africa, called Senega!, is often equally beautiful with 
the finest specimens of amber. However, that the ancients 
were also well acquainted with the substance properly thus 
named, its employment for goblets sufficiently proves. Dios- 
corides says that it is vulgarly considered as the juice of the 
populus nigra, which grows hard in the waters of the Po, and 
describes one of* its properties svufcg sv rr, iia^a.r^H. 

The ancients prized specimens of amber which enclosed 
insects : a subject on which several Latin, and some Greek 
epigrams have been written, of which the two following, by 
Martial, are among the best, 

Dum Phaelhontea Formica vagatar in umbra, 

Implicuit teneram succina Guita Fera?n, 
Sic modo quce fuerat vita, contempta mantnte, 
Funeribus facta est nunc pretiosa suis. 

IV.— 15. 
Et latet et lucet Phaethontide condita Gutta, 

Ut videatur A pis nectare clausa suo. 
Dignum tantorum pretium iulit ilia laborum : 
Credibile est ipsam sic voluisse mori. 

IV — 32. 



112 Sat. v. Juvenal. v. 67—76 

To count the gems, a saucy slave stands by, 
Thy nails inspecting with a watchful eye : 
Excuse his freedom, and forbear to touch 
Those emeralds, admir'd so very much 1 70 

For these on Virro's hand no longer shine, 
But sparkling on the margin of the wine, 
The cup displays the gems, which once adorn' d 
His sword, for whom the jealous prince was scorn'd. 
If thou art thirsty, grasp the leaky jar, 75 

The Beneventine cobler's namesake-ware, 

V. 70. Those emeralds, $?c. laspis in the original, com- 
monly translated Jasper, was surely not the stone now dis- 
tinguished by that name, but rather a colored gem, and most 
likely a species of the emerald ; it is mentioned, indeed, in 
connection with the emerald by Theophrastus, who, among 
other ornamental purposes to which it was applied, mentions 
this, of fixing upon cups, — >j la/rtttSt olg os sig ra XidoxoWsc 
y&wrttu. 

Dioscorides, in reckoning up the several kinds of this stone, 
says, o jW-sv rig ecrr; "E^a^ay^wv — which is perhaps the species 
here alluded to. Under this head, it may also be worth while 
to put down, that he probably describes the smoky quartz or 
cairn gorum, (o h KAIINIA2 olaitscei xsxatfvHr-fAEVogi) almost 
by its present name. 

If there be any doubt of the similarity between the laspis 
and the emerald, an epigram upon a ring in the Anthologia, 
would go far to determine the point. 

Tag /Sou; %ai rov latnriv iSwv tfs§i X sl § 1 ^onrpsig 
Tag pev cLvcrtyeisiv, rov Ss XAOHKOMEEIN. 

What follows in the text alludes to the sword of iEneas. 

Stellatus Iaspide fulva 

Ensis erat. 

&neid. 1. iv. 



v. 77 — 96. Sat. v. Juvenal. 113 

Void of all worth, — save only to be sold 

For some half score of matches duly told ! 

With meat and wine if Virro's stomach glow, 

He quaffs a cup more cold than Getic snow ; SO 

And said I viler wines were kept for you ? 

My friend, you drink inferior water too : 

Serv'd by the paw of some Getulian boor, 

Or bony fingers of an hideous Moor, 

At whom you'd start when all around is still 85 

Amid the tombs that crown the Latin hill ! 

The flower of Asia waits your host's commands, 

Bought at a cost more vast than all the lands 

Of Tullus, or rich Ancus, could defray, 

Or all the goods of all Rome's kings could pay ! 90 

Ask for thy negro Ganymede whene'er 

Thy throat is parch'd, nor dream a boy so fair 

Knows how to suit the taste of such as thee; 

Regard the stripling ere thou make so free ; 

His form, his age, his looks of high disdain — ■ 95 

Thy hints, thy calls, thy signals all are vain ! 

V. 76*. The Beneventine cobler, SfC. The Beneventine 
Cobler was one Vatinius. — Vatinius inter foedissima ejus 
(Neronis) aulce ostenta fuit, sutrince tabernce alumnus, cor- 
pore detorto facetiis scwrilibus, Sfc. — [Tacit. Ann. xv.l — 
These cups with four projecting spouts, or lips, or handles, 
got the surname of Vatinius, says the Scholiast, because he 
had a very prominent nose. 

V. 80. He quaffs a cup, tyc. The expression decocta 
pruinis, is perhaps an intentional opposition of terms, but it 
is commonly stated in explanation that Nero was fond of 
boiled water afterwards refrigerated by immersion in snow. 

V. 87. Of Asia's youth the flower. It was not only the 
Juv. H' 



114 Sat. v. Juvenal. v. 97 — 113. 

There, there he stands dispensing cold and hot, 

Thee and thy vulgar wants remembering not ! 

O cease to ask, — 'twould move our youngster's 

spleen 
To help an humble client were he seen : 100 

His pride ill brooks, that thou reclin'd in state 
Canst eat at ease, while he forsooth must wait ! 
This insolence of slaves quite monstrous grown 
Is each great mansion's curse, with what a tone [105 
The scoundrel hands you bread one scarce can break. 
Hard musty lumps which make the grinders ache, 
Kept for himself while loaves of fairest flour 
Your kind and generous landlord will devour ! 
Those tempting rolls, let not thy touch profane, 
Or, art thou scheming ? know thy arts are vain, 1 10 
Comes one who bids thee the small theft resign, 
(Thou might'st be sure such bread was none of thine) 
' Wilt thou be pleas'd once more, bold guest, to see 
' The color of the loaves design'd for thee ?' 

* So ! 'twas for this,' you mutter, * that I left 115 
4 My bed, my wife, of half my rest bereft, 

6 Fac'd the raw breezes of th' Esquilian hill, 

* Felt thro' my cloak the drizzling rain distill, 

custom of the Romans to buy slaves from Asia, but to clothe 
thera with a total disregard to the change of climate. This 
is alluded to in the eleventh satire. Juvenal describes his 
attendant as 

A frigore tutus 
Non Phryx ant Lycins, non a mangone petitus. 
V. 97. There, there he stands, dispensing cold and hot, 
"The ancients made use of both at their meals ; which among 
various other testimonies is easily brought to recollection from 



v. 1 19-— 132. Sat. v. Juvenal. 115 

* While all the sky with sables hung would lower 
' Or burst the vernal hail's impetuous shower.' — 
Beyond thy reach, (of course,) a lobster grac'd 
With large asparagus, is duly plac'd : 
See how he brandishes his tail in scorn, 
As the claw'd monster o'er your heads is borne, — 
A stale, lean crab, and half an egg, — a treat 125 
Fit for a tomb ! — behold your tempting meat. 
Merg'd in pellucid oil — reserv'd for him ! — 
The stately fish on Virro's plate shall swim ; 
Thy cabbage stinks of what the sharp canoe 
Brought from Micipsa's shores — reserv'd for you ! 
Fit for the lamp alone, so rank that none [130 
To bathe with Bocchar's countrymen is known ! 

the circumstance of the poisoning of Brittannicus. The 
Prince called for a cup, it was purposely presented to him 
too hot- — he desired cold water to be added to it, and the 
opportunity was then taken to infuse the poison. 

V. I2(r. Fit for a tomb. The Feralis coena~& 

quantity of provision, usually of a very coarse description 
made a part of the Roman ceremony of interment, it was left 
in the tomb, and there were not seldom among the living 
persons sufficiently wretched to have recourse to this revolting 
banquet, for a meal. Prataeus tells us that a custom some- 
what similar remains in Languedoc, where on the evening of 
the first of November a table is set forth among the tombs 
provided with a banquet of wine, bread and meat in honor of 
the dead. This custom also, it is said, prevails in the East 
and in China. 

V. 130. Brought from Micipsa's shores. I have named 
the boat in question (which the commentators call ' Navicuh 



116 tfat.v. Juvenal. v. 133—160. 

Who in their stench secure, defy the snakes- 
And all the venom of their native brakes ! 

A Mullet enters next, for Virro brought, 135 
At Taormini, for Virro' s table caught : 
Since now the nets for new supplies must seek 
Far distant shores, and sift each foreign creek : 
No Tyrrhene fish remaining to appease 
The throat's demand, all drain'd th' Italian seas, 
From coasts remote must cunning Lenas gain [140 
Gifts to Aurelia sent, — to sell again ! 

A Lamprey next to Virro they present 
From the Sicilian gulf for Virro sent ; 
(For while old Auster keeps the house and wrings 
The moisture from his wet-encumber'd wings, [145 
Allur'd by gain the desperate plummets sound 
E'en where Charybdis whirls her surges round !) 
Now comes the dish for thy repast decreed 
A snake-like eel ! — or of that speckled breed 1 50 
Which fatten'd where Cloaca's torrents pour, 
Sported in Tiber's mud, its native shore ; 
And where the drains thro' mid Suburra flow 
Swam the foul streams which fill the Crypt below ! 

A.nd now a word or two, in Virro's ear, 153 
If Virro kindly will vouchsafe to hear : 
None ask, none hope from thee, my worthy friend, 
Such liberal gifts as Seneca would send ! 
Such aid as Cotta's bounty would impart, 
Or wealthy Piso's warm and generous heart ; 160 

e canna') a canoe. Pliny says that canes in India attain soi 
great a size, ut singula Inter nodia alveo navigabili ternos 
interdum homines ferunt. 



v, 161—134. Sat. v. Juvenal. 117 

(For once the power of doing good was thought 
The proudest privilege distinction brought ;) 
Feed, Virro, feed, 'tis all we ask from thee 
With some exterior guise of decency. 
Yes ! do but this — and be like many more, lSr> 
Rich to thyself, to all thy neighbours poor ! 

Return we to the feast. They next produce 
The monstrous liver of a pamper'd goose, 
(For him of course :) a fatten' d fowl before 
Leaves in the rear a huge and smoking boar ; 170 
More huge than that which Meleager slew, 
But plac'd as usual, far remote from you :— 
Then if 'tis spring, and thunder clouds be kind, 
A dish of truffles peel'd appears behind. 
■ O Lybia keep thy corn, Alledius cries. 175 

' And send us Truffles still in large supplies/ 

And now lest ought might yet remain untried 
To raise your passions or to gall your pride, 
Behold the Carver who with rare grimace 
And pompous air capers from place to place, 1 80 
The meats arranging at the master's call 
And with a rapid knife dismembering all : 
For 'tis no light affair, believe me, how 
Hare, Fowl, or Pheasant are dissected now ; 

V. 179. Behold the Carver. The carver, Struct or, Dirt- 
hitor, Scissor was a servant whose express concern it was to 
dismember the articles of the repast. Another or perhaps 
the same to set it out in order. These were indispensable 
attendants at every feast. 

Veniet quifercula docte 
Componit ; veniet qui pulmentaria condit. 

Sat. 7. 135, 
The art of carving was taught on wooden models. 



118 Sat. v. Juvenal. v. 185—205. 

Hal dost thou move a lip as if thy claims 185 

"Were yet unforfeited, and those Three Names 
Gave still a Roman's right to speak thy mind, 
Kick'd to the street, thy error shalt thou find. 

O when shall Virro drink to such a guest 
When touch the goblet which thy lips have press' d ? 
Or which of you will be so rash, so lost 1 90 

When uninvited, as to pledge your host ? 
The words are not a few, which want 

controuls, 
Which none may utter with a cloak in 

holes ! 

But should some god or mortal well inclin'd 195 
Leave thee a fortune, than the fates more kind, 
How very soon thy abject state will end ! 
Now much caress'd ! now greatly Virro's friend ! 

* Help, worthy Trebius, put that cover near, 

* Come brother — taste this haunch before me 

here?'— 200 

Brother ! O gold omnipotent, for thee 
This speech is meant of kind fraternity ! 
But would' st thou rule with undivided swa y -\ 
And lord it o'er thy lord the livelong day (. 

No young JEneas in thy hall must play, 205 ) 

V. 1 86. The three names, the mark of distinction between 
the' Roman citizen and the slave. The paraphrastic manner 
in which i have rendered the passage supersedes a longer note. 
The insulted client had three names, — was a Roman citizen still, 
but the privileges of independence they conferred were forfeit- 
ed by his despicable submission. 



tr. 206 — 219. Sat. v. Juvenal. 119 

Her steps to thee no infant daughter bend, 

A STERILE WIFE SECURES A STEDFAST FRIEND. 

Though now, as times are changed, should Mycale 

Produce at once three little Trebii, three ! 

Be sure he'll play with the loquacious nest 210 

And bring them nuts, and many a gaudy vest, 

And the demanded penny with delight 

Give to the playful infant Parasite. 

But let us view this hateful scene once more — 
And see ! kind Virro's cautious friends explore 215 
The doubtful fungus, while before their host 
Delicious mushrooms take their usual post. 
Such, Claudius dearly lov'd, till One there came 
Of size conspicuous and of endless fame, 

V. 218. Such, Claudius lov'd. This Emperor ' boletorum 
uppetentissimus' was poisoned by a mushroom prepared by 
his wife Agrippina. The practitioner she consulted on tii.e 
occasion was the famous Locusta, mentioned in the first Satire 
with due commendation. ' She despaired of succeeding with 
his wine, of which he drank a great deal, on account/ says 
Dio, ' of the precautions which Emperors use ; aud finding 
her own judgment unequal to the case, Aokoucttocv riva <pa,$- 

Koctoca-Ksvaca-Xtra, s; tivcc rwv KaXovpsvouv ^VKyTiov svs/3aAs. — ■ 
She ate herself the smaller mushrooms of the dish, but put the 
large one on the plate of her husband — ' post quern nil amplius 
edit.' He was soon carried out of the room, swoln and 
stupified ! vTtsgKOgy); \uch^ cripoSga, u>v — and departed this life 
the succeeding day. He was deified in due time, and the 
deification afforded a good joke for Nero. 

( Mushrooms,' said he,' are certainly the food of the Gods, 



120 Sat v. Juvenal, v. 220—221 

Which season'd for her valued lord's repast 220 
Under his wife's directions, prov'd his last ! 

for Claudius became a God by eating them.* Exsjvoj- yaf 
8ia iMvya^oc ©so$ syeyovei. 

Suetonius says, it was reported, that having thrown up the 
first dose he was supplied with a second by another mode of 
introduction. — Agrippina was, it must be confessed, a woman 
of perseverance. Tacitus relates the sequel thus : — The Em- 
peror being relieved, and Agrippina having every thing to fear, 
sent for Xenophon, a Physician ; he, on pretence of promoting 
the disposition to vomit, irritates the throat of his patient with 
a feather smeared with poison; a sensible man ! haud ig- 

NARUS SUMMA SCELERA INCIPI CUM PERICULO, PE- 
RAGI CUM PRiEMIO. 

Thus ends a long and full account of the practices of 
gluttony and the punishments of the parasite, 

tywij.ov ovzitjiiov yxtrTgi 2Ca.gity[J,evo$. 
One may allow a little for exaggeration — a few insertions 
for effect, — but the main fact is certainly true that the Table, 
which was formerly held even as sanctified and consecrated 
to the purposes of liberality and friendship, was now the 
scene of two opposite indeed, but equally degrading vices. 
Martial amply confirms the account of Juvenal. See lib. vi. 11. 
and iii. 60. for an expostulation with two Virros. 

Res tibi cum Rhombo est, at mihi cum sparulo. 
Cur sine te cozno, cum tecum Pont ice ccenem ? 
To Marcus who complains that he cannot find a Pylades 
he suggests the propriety of first becoming an Orestes. 
Nee melior pants turdusve dabatur Oresti. 
Sedpar atque eadem ccena duobus erat, 
A still further corroboration of these practices, though in 
truth Satire requires little confirmation— (the existence of the 



v. 222 — 229. Sat. v. Juvenal. 121 

Apples to all the Virros, they present 
Of which his guests inhale the fragrant scent ; 
Such, mellow'd by Corcyra's brilliant sky 
Her endless autumns might alone supply, 225 

Such thou might'st think, and only such as these 
Were pilfer'd from the fam'd Hesperides ! 
But as for your's, behold such precious fruit, 
Such windfalls as beseem the raw recruit, 



Satire proving the existence of the vice) may be found in 
Pliny's Letter to Avitus, 1. ii. 6. describing such an enter- 
tainment. The following is an extract from it. 

' Some very elegant dishes were served up to himself and a 

* few more of us ; while those which were placed before the 

* rest of the company were extremely cheap and mean. There 
■ were, in small bottles, three different sorts of wine : not 
' that the guests might take their choice, but that they might 
' not have an option in their power. The best was for him- 

* self and his friends of the first rank ; the next for those of a 
' lower order, (for, you must know, he measures out his friend- 

* ship according to the degrees of quality,) and the third for 

* his own and his guests' freedmen. One who sat near me, 

* took notice of this circumstance, and asked me how I ap- 
' proved of it 1 Not at all, I replied. Pray then, said he, 

* what is your method on these occasions 1 Mine, I returned, 
' is to give all my visitors an equal reception : for when I 
" make an invitation it is to entertain, not distinguish, my 
' company. I set every man upon a level with myself whom 
' I admit to my table, not excepting my freedmen, whom I 

* look upon at those times to be my guests, as much as the 
'rest. At this he expressed some surprize, and asked if I 

* did not find it a very expensive method 1 I assured him, not 



122 Sat. v. Juvenal. v. 230—247. 

Who dreads the surly veteran's peevish blow, 230 
While station'd in the trench he learns to throw 
The javelin, and with prompt address to wield 
The ponderous spear and shift the cumbrous shield. 
Perhaps thou reckon'st, friend, that all is done 
From a mean mind and avarice alone : — 235 

Ah no ! 'tis done to make thee writhe and smart, 
To crush thy spirit and to wring thy heart ; 
Done all for sport ! for what more comic scene 
Than thy distress, 'twixt appetite and spleen ? 
'Tis done, as all but thou must plainly see, 240 
To make thee grind thy teeth in agony ; 
That bursting gall may vent itself in tears, 
And mutter'd curses be suppress'd by fears. 
Free dost thou call thyself, and take thy seat 
At such a board ? he knows you come to eat ; 245 
Knows that they take thy virtue by surprise, 
Those savoury steams which from his kitchen rise. 

* at all ; and that the whole secret lay in being contented l& 

* drink no better wine myself than I gave to others.' 

I will conclude this subject with a translation from a Greek 
epigram, the turn of which however I have altered, as it 
seems flat even in the original. 

Far from the rich man's board be still thy seat, 
Touch not the parasite's insulting meat, 
Nor sorrowless shed thou the lying tear, 
Nor with the laugher laugh : be still sincere ; 
And when nor love nor hate thy bosom move,, 
With Virro hate not, nor with Virro Love. 



v. 248 — 263. Sat. v. Juvenal. 123 

And he is right ; for who unless 'twere so 
A second time to such a treat would go ? 
Whether the poor man's leathern boss should deck 
Or gold Etruscan his patrician neck ? [250 

Hope cheats thee still, methinks I hear thee say, 

* That hare half-pick' d we'll surely get to-day ; 

* That rump, at least,' — perhaps a fowl,' — you wait, 
Pick your dry bread, and view your empty plate. 
'Tis just what you deserve, your host is wise, [255 
If such an host you learn not to despise. 

Who can bear all things, all things ought 

TO BEAR ; 

Tarry a little longer, he shall dare, 
Poor humbled slave, thy shaven crown to smite, 
And thou wilt bear the blow,— perhaps invite ; [260 
Think nothing hard, thy back to scourges lend, 
Worthy of such a feast, and such a friend ! 



argument 



Credo pudicitiam, fyc. This Creed of Juvenal's, of 
which in the progress of this long Satire he presents us 
with the several articles, must I fear be regarded (for 
Satire is in some measure History) as an authentic docu- 
ment on the state of manners among the sex at that period. 
It has been often noticed that the picture here drawn of 
the age of chastity is somewhat coarse and unattractive ; 
but we must consider the genius of satirical writing, which, 
conversant with cities and their inhabitants, rarely admits 
of descriptive poetry, unless for the sake of contrast. 
That Juvenal would have succeeded as the poet of rural 
life may be indeed doubted, nevertheless (though some 
critics have denied, or sparingly conceded to him this 
excellence) he seems to have possessed a mind highly 
susceptible of those emotions which arise from contem- 
plating the beauties of nature. Sat. iii. 18, 190, 226. 
viii. 206. ix. 125, &c. 

Everything that relates to the sexual passion in this 
Satire is exceedingly gross, and may be well contrasted 
with the delicacy and beauty of one at least of the Greek 
Philosophers, who thus discourses on the necessity of 
combining affection with animal passion. 

to [xsv Tijc oogag av&og rot^v ds nou TragUK^a^si, cckoXshtoVt 
to; Ss toutoVj ecva.yA.rj xa.it tijv ftXtctv o-vvscTrofJLagutvscr6tt.r ij 
ce if/w^*) 6<70V7rep av wovov <>] sm to <p govt poors gov, xai ctfyz- 
guo-Torsga. yiyvsrai. 

Xenoph. Synrpos. 

Yet some of the Greeks were as friendly to marriage 
as Juvenal, 

'SCHTol yuvrj yoXog so-rtv' f^ei §' ayuQa.; Boo ougx$, 

TJJV /XWV £V 9«A«JXW, TYjV fiKtV SV QuVUTlV, 



125 



PERSONS AND PLACES 

MENTIONED IN THE SATIRE, 

PERSONS. 

PosTHUMUS, a friend of Juvenal's, not elsewhere noticed,, 

Bathyllus, see ?>ote on the passage. 

Thymele, see Satire I. — Saltatrix egregia : Martial begs 
Domitian to read his epigrams with that countenance 

, with which he looks on the performances of Thymele. 
Qua Thymele spectas 
Ilia j route precor, carmina nostra legas. 

Accius, an actor of some renown, as appears from the 
text, but not farther known. 

Tuccia, — There was a vestal of this name, whose reputa- 

, j tion having fallen under a cloud, * Grant, O Vesta !' she 
exclaimed before a multitude collected to see the ex- 
periment, * in attestation of my chastity, that I may 
" drink out of this sieve and carry it back full of water 
4 to thy temple,'— and the lady's honor was abundantly 



126 

vindicated. Vai. Maxim, de Judiciis Public. 1. viii. 1. 

The name was not a common one, but this personage 

does not seem to have been of the same family. 
Mlia, unknown, — as indeed most of the exemplary ladies 

of this Satire are and ought to be ; Hispulla, Hippia, 

Bibula, Cesennia, Sanfeia, Medullina, Maura, fyc. 
Echion, Ambrosias, unknown musicians ; but Glaphynis 

was a celebrated Piper in the reign of Augustus, of 

whom Antipater in the. Greek epigram, 

Ogtpsvs Qygag e-xufc : cry d' og<ps%. 

Sergius, a gladiator, whose middle age, at least, is I think 
intended by the expression, ' radere guttur.' 

Berenice, see Note on the passage. 

Cornelia, ' the mother of the Gracchi.' Such was the 
inscription on her statue, which Juvenal here adopts as 
complimentary, although one should suppose he was 
not an admirer of the family. 
Quis tiderit Gracchos de seditione querentes. — Sat. II. 

Niobe, the wife of Amphion, King of Thebes, who 
brought him a large family ; ' concerning the number 
and names of whom there is a great diversity of opinion 
among authors.' — Ruperti. Her misfortunes are beau- 
tifully related by Ovid. 

Felicissima mat-rum 
Dicta foret Niobe si non sibi visa fui&set ! 

for when her countrywomen were about to perform a 
sacrifice in honor of Latona, she made extremely free, 
among other themes, with the unfruitfulness of the 
Goddess. 



127 

Ilia duobus 

Facta parens : uteri pars est hcec septimu noslrt! 
The rest of the tale is told by Juvenal. 
Hcemus, Carpophorus, more actors ; their excellence con- 
sisting in the . flexibility of their voices : the first of 
them commended for this excellence by Quintilian. 

Archigenes ; Note on the passage. 

Manilla, a mere name to be numbered with those above 
classed, as unknown : though Ruperti cites a little 
story of a female of this name, from Aulas Gellius, 
which I omit because I do not consider it as illustrative 
of the character here imputed. 
Palamou, the instructor of Quintilian, a learned gram- 
marian in the reigns of Tiberius and Claudius, but 
withal so well pleased with himself as to say, ' that 
letters came with him, and with him would depart.' 
Casonia, the second wife of Caligula. Paulina being di- 
vorced from him for sterility, the Emperor chose his se- 
cond mate under very unequivocal circumstances, and be- 
came a father at the early period of 30 days. Her 
physical qualifications were indeed undeniable, (for this 
was her fourth child,) her moral, less conspicuous, 
since she was, on the authority of Suetonius, ' tuxuria 
ac lasciviee perdita'.' Caligula, however, admired her 
figure so much, as to show her off to his soldiers, 
* chlamyde, pelt a, et galea ornatam, — amicis vero etiam 
1 nudam ; how grateful she was for these attentions we 
read in the text. 

Several other names occur in this long Satire, but 
they are for the most part so trite that it would be inex- 
cusable to waste time on mere transcription of common 
places. 



128 



PLACES. 

Mmilian Bridge, one of the live bridges which still 
remain out of eight which existed in. ancient Rome. 
Of the original structure, the tower built by Belisarius 
at a late period of the empire to command the end of 
the bridge, is still perfect. This bridge led immediately 
upon the Flaminian Way. It was called in ancient 
times Milvius, by corruption, and now by still farther 
corruption Ponte Molle. From a view before me, it 
was not remarkably high, but, perhaps the river below 
was remarkably deep, which would justify the recom- 
mendation of Juvenal. It was on this bridge that 
Cicero caused the deputies of the Allobroges to be ar- 
rested, as they came into Borne at night, — the first step 
in suppressing the Catalinarian conspiracy. Sail. Bell. 
Cat. 45. Nero made it the scene of his nocturnal 
riots, and of the outrages he so frequently committed 
on the peaceable inhabitants of Rome. 

Pons Mulvius in eo tempore Celebris noclurnis inlece- 
bris erat ; ventitabatque illic Nero quo solutius urhem 
extra, lasciviret. Tacit. Ann. xiii. 47. 
Gabii, Fidencz, small towns at a short distance from Rome. 
Canusium, a small town in Apulia, on the river Aufidus. 

Its vicinity remarkable for its breed of sheep, as that 

of Falernum was for its vineyards. 

Sybaris, a town in Lucania, whose inhabitants became 
so infamous for their depravity, as to have furnished the 
occasion for a proverb, Sus, et mensa Sybaritica.— 
The immorality of this place has been copiously des- 
cribed by Athenaeus and by iElian. Rup. 



129 



Rhodes, a celebrated island adjacent to the coast of 
Asia, at the entrance of the Archipelago : and noted 
also for its effeminacy and luxury. 

Miletus, the principal city of Ionia, another place cele- 
brated for its wealth and its profligacy. 

Tarentum, in Calabria, one of the most ancient cities in 
Italy, and in disrepute corresponding to those just 
mentioned. 

Meroe, a city of ^Ethiopia, in an island or rather pen- 
insula of the Nile, of the same name. 



JllV. 



attre vi. 



ies, we admit that chastity remain'd 
And dwelt on earth so long as Saturn reign'd, 
While man and beast, a lodging and a lah» 
In some cold cavern were content to share, 



V. 4. In some cold cavern. Lucretius gives us a picture 
of a still earlier period of society, or rather of savage lite, 
inasmuch as the use of fire and of skins was yet to learn, — a 
picture even less attractive than that of Juvenal. 
Necdum res igni scihant tractare ncque uti 
Pellibus, et spoliis corpus vestire ferarum : 
Sed ncmcra atque cavos monies silvasque coltbant, 
Et frutices inter condebant squalida membra. 
Another on the same subject occurs in the beautiful speech 
where Prometheus sums up the benefits he has conferred ou 
mankind. 

K'ovri 7r'Aiv()v<psi; 

/istrwpp^ef 8' bvociov cucrt arpvgoi 
(/.v^rjKs;, avrgw,' bv uvysoig avyXioi;. 

iEschyl. Prometh. v. 459. 



v. 5 — 18. Sat. vi. Juvenal. 131 

While yet the woods supplied the casual bed, 5 
While moss, and skins, and leaves were duly spread 
By dames, at whose large breasts the sinewy child 
Of an athletic sire, contented smil'd. 
Unlike our Cinthias, who with tearful eyes 
Refuse all comfort when their sparrow dies! 10 
For other modes of life did man pursue, 
When heaven was recent and this orb was new, 
From riven oaks as yet, and plastic earth, 
While all th' existing race deriv'd its birth. 

Some case or two perhaps the world might boast 1 5 
Of female chastity not wholly lost, 
When Jove succeeded to his father's throne, 
But then — twas ere the monarch's beard was grown. 

V. 13. From riven oaks. That is, says Brittanicus and the 
Delphin editor, (and Ruperti transcribes the saying,) when 
the first men were seen to come out of the hollow trees in 
the morning, in which they had taken refuge at night, ' inde 
nascividebantur,' —but who were the spectators ? — Moreover, 
as Holyday remarks, prima ilia celate, the trees had not had 
time to get hollow ! — so that a new theory is indispensible. 
However, a delivery of this sort is beautifully described by 
Ovid, in the story of Myrrha; if such births were, they 
could not be more gracefully conducted. 

Nilenii tamen est similis, curvataqiie crebros 
Dut gemitus arbor : lacrymisque cadentibus huniet. 
Constitii ad ramos mitis Lucina dolentes 
Admovitqite mantis, et verba puerpera dixit. 
Arbor agit rimas ; et Jissa ccrtice, vivum 
Reddit onus, vagitque puer. 

V. 18. But then 'tivas ere. The sensual paradise of 



132 Sal. vi. Juvenal. v. 19 — 32 

When lies and perjuries as yet were rare, 
Nor by his neighbour's head the Grecian sware ; 20 
In unwall'd gardens while one yet might live, 
And roots and orchards free from pillage thrive : 
But when Astreea from the earth withdrew, 
Alas ! the sister Goddess left us too ! 

'Tis an old vice, (thou know'st it well,) to slight 25 
The sacred genius of the nuptial rite ; 
Date from the iron age all other crimes, 
Adultery florish'd in the silver times ! 
To Rome's most dextrous barber yet dost thou 
Commit thy hair and con the marriage vow ? 30 
The ring perhaps already hast thou giv'n, 
Yet wert thou lately sane, — defend us, heav'n ! 



Mahomet would have been gross even to the apprehension 
of a worshipper of Jupiter, who always laid aside the God 
in his amours, for decency's sake, and perhaps too, willing to 
owe nothing to his rank. One admires however the taste of 
his various masquerades, as much as the success of them. — ■ 
A summary of some of the principal exploits of this Dieu 
d bonnes fortunes, is contained in the Greek epigram, 
but probably a much more accurate catalogue iu Ovid. 
Met. lib. vi. 

Zeu;, kuwos, ravgoc, rra.'tv^oc, x^vcros ^' £ $ W7 ' a ' 

Arfa;, JLvgcwiryc, Avtioityz, Aavsc^;. 
For Leda, fair dame, a Swan Jove became, 

For Europa a Bull, we are told, 
A Satyr that he, might gain Antiove, 

And for Danat glittering gold. 
V, 31. The ring perhaps. Digito piguus dedisti.— The 



v. 33 — 44. Sat. vi. Juvenal. 133 

And may we, must we then believe it true, 
That in these times a wife is sought by you ? 
What furies, Posthumus, distract thy brain ? 35 
Submit to wear the ignominious chain, 
While ropes and scores "of casements from their 

height 
To break thy neck so temptingly invite ! 
While stands th' JEmilian bridge ? or if of these 
Thy too fastidious taste, not one can please, 40 

Were it not better, better far to take 
A mate who will not bid thee lie awake, 
Nor of thy failures force thee still to hear 
The fearful sum, the desperate arrear ? 



ring was given some time before as a sponsal pledge, not at 
the marriage of the parties. The betrothment was settled in 
two words, An Spondes? Spondeo. The marriage itself 
was either tacitly acknowledged by cohabitation for a year, 
(usus) or contracted before the Pontif. Max., or the Fla- 
men Dialis by the rite of Confarreatio, ten witnesses 
being present, and the parties severally tasting a piece of cake 
or bread made of salt-water and flour — FAR. It was only the 
children of this more solemn marriage who could fill certain 
religious offices, to which particular importance was annexed. 
Coemptio, a third kind of contract made by exchanging a 
piece of money had in the time of Cicero, superseded the 
ancient rite of Confarreatio. Many of the Pagan rites were 
very elegantly imagined ; this was one of them. The parties 
about to marry sacrificed to Juno Nuptialis : in this sacrifice 
they carefully separated the gall and threw it away, signi- 



134 Sat. vi. Juvenal. v. 45 — 60- 

Aye, but an heir ! behold the secret charm, " 45 
And then the Law will keep our friend from harm ! 
The Julian Law — Turtle he'll now resign, 
And without mullets, like a parent dine ! — 
What may not happen if Ursidius take 
The yoke he lov'd to banter and to break ? 50 

If this abuser of his neighbour's bed, 
Into the noose shall thrust his foolish head, 
Who in Latinus' chest when all but caught, 
So oft the refuge of concealment sought ! 
A wife too of the old, the moral strain, 55 

Ursidius looks for ! Haste ye ! tie his vein — 
He's mad! stark mad !— at Jove's great threshold 

bow, 
A steer with gilded horns to Juno vow, 
If to thy lot, one that may safely touch [60 

The sacred wreaths they grant — -(few, few be such ! 



fying, says Plutarch, to prfieitQTe hiv xpkyv pyh ogyrjV yoLu.up 

TtCCOSlVOU. 

V. 4,6. And then the law will keep, Sfc. * Placet Ursidio 
lex Julia,' because, says the Scholiast, it allows such as have 
children to become heirs ; no, — Ursidius pleases himself with 
the protection of his honor, by the enactment of this law, 
concerning which see Note on Satire I. The bachelor, 
we see, made important sacrifices, in giving up his claim to 
the kind attentions of his friends. The rich Aurclia, we read 
in the preceding Satire, was so well supplied with fish in con- 
sequence of her celibacy, as to have some to dispose of. — 
The Mullet (or Surmullet rather; was the great delicacy in 
use on these occasions. 



v. 61 — 78. Sat. vi. Juvenal. 135 

Whom e'en their sires, of all suspicions void, 
May dare embrace with fondness unalloy'd !) 
Yes ! on thy porch the festive wreath suspend, 
Let clustering ivy o'er thy gates descend. 

To one her loves shall Iberina tie ? 63 

Go, first convince her that a single eye 
Excels a pair ; — one hears indeed a tale 
Of a chaste damsel in her native vale,— 
Let Gabii, let Fidense first attest 
Her spotless fame, and I'll believe the rest. — 70 
Are Mars and Jove then, grown effete and old, 
Can tales no more by groves and caves be told ? 

Range all the porticos, frequent the shews, 
Survey the theatre in all its rows, 
Say, could'st thou one select securely there, 75 
With whom 'twere safe thy happiness to share ? 
A mimic Leda does Bathyllus move. 
Our Tuscan's kindling thoughts her gestures prove j 

V. 65. To one her loves, S?c. ' That is/ says Holyday, 
' thou shalt not find thy Iberina to be such a pure piece ; but 
though she might be chaste at her obscure home, yet if 
brought to the temptations even of Gabii and Fideme, though 
exceedingly inferior to Rome, she may prove as honest as 
thou hast been.' 

V. 77- -As Mimic Leda. Prejudice apart, there were 
several circumstances in the ancient Tragedy as represented 
on the stage, which were highly unfavorable to effect. As 
to that of the Cothurnus or Buskin, the only notion we can 
entertain of it, is that of clumsiness, but the 'persona; pnl- 
lentis hiatus,' the grim mask which occurs on many antique 



136 SaU vi. Juvenal, v. 79—82. 

By the flushed cheek, and many a sigh betray' d, 
Lewd Thymele inflames th' Apulian maid. 80 

In those dull months when games and shows must 

cease, 
And, save the forum, all at Rome is peace, 



gems, and plates of which are prefixed to sundry editions of 
Terence and Plautus, must have been a vital deformity to 
the ancient stage. On that stage, however, Pantomime 
florished to a degree of excellence of which it is impossible 
to conceive any thing from the harlequins and trap-doors of 
our Theatre. The relation of a long story told, we hear, with 
scrupulous accuracy, by gesture only, must be numbered with 
the arts that have perished : However, the modern Italians 
are said to be excellent mimics in their way. 

The Performers in these pieces were in high favour with the 
Emperors, and were indulged by them in several privileges. 
Bathyllus was a native of Alexandria, came to Rome during 
the reign of Augustus, and was made a freedman by Maece- 
nas — to him and to Pylades the Romans were indebted for 
Pantomime. The great performer in this line in Juvenal's 
time was Paris, as he had good reason to recollect, if it 
were true that he owed his acquaintance with Egypt to the 
good offices of this favorite. 

It is impossible to conceive the disturbances of the public 
peace which sometimes ensued from the parties, occasioned 
by rivals in this line. The two mentioned above, (one of 
whom excelled in tragic, the other in comic ballet,) divided 
Rome into factions ! Even Augustus condescended to attempt 
to effect a reconciliation between them, on which occasion 
Pylades smartly and truly told him, that the occupation and 
dish-action of the public mind in their petty quarrels, was all 
for his advantage, 2,v[x<pegei <roi, Kocioscg, ifegi r^as rov fyfioi' 



v. 83—104. Sat. vi. Juvenal. 137 

Some, deeply smitten by the mimic trade, 

In all the gear of Accius are array 'd ; 

While others to th' Atellan farce repair 85 

To view the wanton Mimes, Autonoe there, 

Where gesture too significantly tells 

The tale on which delighted i£lia dwells : 

Amorous and poor : — but there be some who buy 

On higher terms the histrionic joy; 90 

Who find out ways and means to spoil the note 

Of Hasmus, or on buskin'd heroes doat : 

While by such arts a woman's soul is mov'd, 

How shall the virtuous or the brave be Jov'd ? 

You'll marry ? — well, — but ere 'tis done be sure, 95 

A father's claims thy partner chaste and pure 

On young Echion quickly will confer, 

Or stout Ambrosius, the trumpeter : 

Or Glaphyrus : — Go then, thy doors adorn 

With laurel, — tell the world thy son is born ; 100 

Display the festive scene in every street, 

While, cradled under canopies, we greet 

The noble bastard, in whose well mark'd face 

All may Euryalus, the swordsman trace. 



V. S5. While others to th' Atellan farce. Atella was a 
small town between Capua and Naples, from which a sort of 
Melo-drame derived its name and origin. In the exodium, 
which it is customary to render by the English word farce, or 
rather after-piece, the actor who had borne the principal part 
in the serious piece which preceded, performed some buf- 
fooneries in the same dress and mask, to dispel the melancholy 



138 Sat. vi. Juvenal. v. 105 — 112. 

Wife of a senator, his partner vile 105 

Seeks the fam'd walls of Lagus and the Nile, 
Canopus blushing for the crimes of Rome ! 
And with a worn-out swordsman quits her home : 
From sister, husband, friends behold her fly, 
Nor e'en her children cost the wretch a sigh ! 110 
All, all ! she leaves behind, and stranger yet, — 
E'en Paris and the games,— without regret I 



of the spectators. Who could have conceived such a wretched 
depravity of taste 7 hut it was, of course, a compliment to 
the mob, like our incongruous supplements to the tragedies 
of Shakespear and of Otway ; the end and aim of this species 
of composition SfsXziv koci <pofiov rfsgaivovcra. tyjv twv roiovrcvv 
tfzQyy.a.ruiv %a§a.(J>Tiv > not only forgotten but frustrated. On 
the subject of the Atellan farce Dusaulx refers to the Mera. 
de 1' Acad, des Inscript. T. 1. p. 214. 

V. 105. Wife of a Senator. Respecting this lady, history 
is silent, if we except the narrative which follows, which 
records the anomaly of a lady running off from a luxurious 
and fascinating capital to a country of barbarians, and from 
opulence, ease and security, to danger, poverty and hard- 
ships, with an old, maimed, and exceedingly frightful gallant ! 
In a general Satire on Women, such a case, (very little likely 
to happen again,) would not have been worth alluding to, 
much less deserving circumstantial narration, except for 
the sake of the contrast which follows, 

Just a pericli 
Si ratio est et honest a, timent vavidoque gelantur, §c. 

By the periphrasis of the ' walls of Lagus', Alexandria 
is intended : and Veiento, the husband of Hippia, is found 
in the Alban Court of Domitian. Sat. iv. 113. 



v. 213 — 142. Sat. vi. Juvenal. 139 

On her, misfortune ne'er had cast a frown, 
Her youth was cradled in the softest down ; 
Wealth filPd the halls of her paternal home, 115 
Yet now o'er boisterous waves she loves to roam, 
Contemning fear, — fame had she long despised ; 
Fame ! by our pillow'd fair ones lightly priz'd ! 
Th' Ionian whirlwind, and the Tyrrhene waves, 
With breast most masculine, our heroine braves; 1 20 
Yet let an honest cause for risque appear, 
Then are the gentle souls o'erwhelm'd with fear ! 
Her feet will scarce support the fainting dame ! 
Their courage they reserve for deeds of shame. 
What lady with an husband would be drown'd ? 1 25 
Then, holds are filthy ; then, the head swims round. 
Who follows her gallant, no terrors try, 
None, none are sick, — save when the husband's by, 
Him, absent, o'er the ship they love to stray, 
Mess with the crew, and with the cordage play ! 1 30 
What form, what features drew the dame aside ? 
For whom was Fame's insulting tongue defied ? 
Long since around his throat the beard had grown, 
His crippled arm to combats long unknown, 
And where his brow the helmet once had bound 135 
Was seen a mark indelible around : 
A filthy wart from his mid nostril grew, 
His eye-lids dropt an acrimonious dew, 
Which kept his time-worn cheek for ever wet, 
But Sergy was a gladiator yet. 140 

A new Adonis seem'd he to the dame 
For this alone— for this a mother's name 



140 Sat. vi. Juvenal, v. 143 — 148. 

Hippia despis'd — the sword, the sword they prize, 
Here all the charm, all the seduction lies, 
And void of this, the fair he'd quickly find 145 
To his, as to her husband's, merits blind. 

But these be vices of retir'd abodes ; 
Review we next the rivals of the Gods. 



V. 147. But these be vices. Another anecdote in high 
life is here related— Its subject, Messalina, the wife of the 
fifth Caesar, Ttogviyuorarv) xcti aTSA.ystj'ra.rrj,, whose debauch- 
eries are unexampled even in Roman history. The epithet 
' gen-erosns' given to the amiable aud unfortunate Brittanicus, 
and indeed the introduction of his name, in connection with 
her depravities, were surely intended as aggravations of the 
mother's guilt, not as reflections on the son. She appears 
again towards the end of the 10th Satire, where Juvenal 
alludes to the story of her infatuated marriage with Cuius 
Silius, a scene which ended in her own swift destruction. 
The widowed Emperor, (here pleasantly enumerated ' inter 
rivales Deorum) declared he would have nothing more to 
do with matrimony : but his friends recommended Agrippiua, 
and his shyness was conquered by a decree of the Senate, that 
* lie should be compelled to take a wife as a matter of im- 
portance to the commonwealth. ' It turned out to be so far 
important that the state was indebted to her industry and in- 
genuity for the death of its ruler, which happened soon after, 
and she was in her turn, by a just retribution, put to death 
by that Nero for whose sake she had committed almost every 
possible enormity. In one part of her conduct in the brothel, 
Messalina, it seems, has found a modern imitatress. — 
' Catherine Sforce petit e-fl lie de Francois Sforce montra son 
ventre dans line place publique,' says Dusaulx, ' mats quelle 
difference? Desseditkux la nunaccnt dans Rimini defairper'w 



y. 149 — 162. Sat. vi. Juvenal. 141 

Come, hear the fates of Claudius, when she found 
The world's great lord, and her's, in sleep profound, 
The daring harlot cowl'd her shameless head, [1.50 
And left an Emperor's for a strumpet's bed. 
One maid she bids her midnight feats to share, 
Binds in a yellow cawl her coal-black hair, 
Hies to the brothel, takes Lycisca's cell 155 

And there, (a shameless tale which thousands tell !) 
There, all who would, Brittanicus, might see 
Without a veil, the loins possess'd by thee ! 
There long she waits with bare and gilded breast, 
And clasps delighted every kindling guest ; 160. 
And when the fading stars' retiring train 
Announce the end of night's declining reign, 



ses enfans quelle leur avail donne en Stage. Cette heroine re- 
troussant ses v&icmens leur dit — En quo possim liber os iierum, 
procreare. Much of Messalina's audacious violation of 
decency is recorded in detail by Dio ; more particularly her ad- 
venture with Mnester, the Dancer, who, refusing all her solicit- 
ations, she caused the stupid Claudius to lay commands upon 
him, that he was to obey her in whatever she desired. In 
this way she made her husband, in many instances, acces- 
sary to his own disgrace, wc yoco siSofoc rs tov KXavSiO'j 

tot. yiyvoiAzvx, kou crvyycvoovvros zixoiyjuero. Use brutish 

stupidity of this Emperor was indeed such, that they often 
took him by surprise, and so alarmed hi-m for his own safety, 
that lie would order the instant execution of some person, 
for whom he would inquire or send the next day, having 
totally forgotten the circumstances ! 



142 Sat. vi. Juvenal, v. 163—168. 

She lingers yet, then, since depart she must, 
Worn with fatigue, but rigid still with lust, 
With sullied skin, and cheeks her shame that tell, 
To scented pillows bears the brothel's smell ! [165 

Of step-sons by concocted poisons slain, 
And their domestic treasons I refrain 



V. \6j. Of stepsons hy concocted poisons, Sfc. The 
poison here particularly mentioned is Hippomanes, concerning 
which much has and may be written. It means two things 
chiefly ; 1st, an excrescence on the head of a colt new foaled, 
concerning which the ancients believed that if the mother did 
not lick it off, she would lose the instinctive love for her foal, 
and never suckle it. ro Ss htiiopcwss xxXovpsvov, says Aristotle, 
zKi^uzrai foig itooKot^, al Ss 'nprroi TfegiXei^ovo-cu kou xx9xigov<rou 
ffegirgcuyovtnv auto. By an easy transition, they were led to 
try this substance as a philtre or potion for inspiring 
love in biped subjects, and hence Dido had recourse to 
the charm to recover the lost affections of iEneas. 
Quceriiur et nascent is equi de j route revuhus 
Kt matri preereptus amor, 
We all know it did not answer ; but toward the end of this 
Satire, we are informed of a more successful case : for the 
uncle of Nero, Caligula, 

Cui toiam tremuli front em Ccesonia pulli 

Infudit, 
went distracted from the effects of the draught, which was of 
course the vehicle of something that held ( a greater enmity 
with blood of man/ 2dly; by Hippomanes is sometimes 
meant a fluid which was procured under certain circumstances 
from the mare, and of such undoubted power that ' if mixed 
with the brass of which the statue of an Olympic w v e is cast, 



v. 169 — 192. Sat. vi. Juvenal. 143 

To tell- — pernicious sex ! there lurk within 
Crimes which make lust your least and lightest sin ! 

' Best of all womankind,' her husband cries, [170 
c My own Cesennia !'— and does this surprise ? 
That husband with an ample portion blest 
Receiv'd the price for which he calls her ' best ;' 
The tender passion's griefs he never knew, 17.5 
Gold lights the torch, gold points the arrows too ! 
She writes, nods, whispers, while her lord can see, 
Of all which favors she has paid the fee. 
Who weds the husband whom her purse in- 
vites, 
Enjoys without the name the widow's rights. 

ButBibula' — thatshe's belov'd you'll own — [1 80 
Yes if you mean her face, and that alone : 
Wait till the bloom forsake the fading cheek 
And the first wrinkles time's incursions speak, 
Less full those lovely eyes, those teeth less white : 
' Begone,' Sertorius cries—' This very night. [185 

* Your nose is quite unpleasant as you know 

* I've often mention'd— madam, please to go. 

* I trust some drier nostril may be found., — 
Meanwhile she scolds, and reigns, and keeps her 

ground, 190 

Canusium's fleece, — Falernum's fruitful vine, 
More slaves, — a larger house, — must now be thine : 

admotos mares eqms ad rabitm coitus agat ! Aristotle men- 
tions this kind of Hippomanes also. Both are rejected from 
all modern Pharmacopoeias. 



144 Sat. vi. Juvenal, v. 193 — 198. 

All that her neighbour has, and she has not, 
At her caprice and pleasure must be got. 
When snow and storms drive sailors from the deep, 
And e'en lason's self on shore must keep, [195 
She wants the myrrhine vase, she wants the stone 
Which erst on Berenice's finger shone ; 

V. 197. She wants the myrrhine, rase, Sfc. A subject for 
a dissertation rather than a note. The description of Pliny 
is obscure enough for the purpose of the least determined 
commentator. Scaliger (cited by Farnaby) on a verge of 
Propertius, 

Murrcaqiie in Parthis pocula coctafocis, 
asserts that these cups were Porcelain. — The expression In- 
deed here seems clearly to intend a fictile vase, but Pliny who 
wrote on these subjects ex professo gives a very different 
account. 1. The stone, if stone it were, had that sort of 
lustre which he calls * Nit or verms quam splendor,' that is, 
the lustre of hard polished surfaces, not metallic. 2. The 
value of the particular specimen depended on its variety of 
color, and 3. on its possessing the property of exhibiting 
colors quales in coslesti arcu specianfur — ail these belong 
to the Labrador Felspar, but another follows, which so far as I 
know belongs to no mineral substance likely from its beauty to 
have been formed into cups, and certainly not to that which 
1 have just named, ' aliqua et in odore commendaiio est.' Were 
it not for these two passages, all the others in Martial &c, 
would rather tend to a persuasion, that the resinous substance 
of myrrh, which it is known was added to their wines by 
the ancients, and which has moreover an agreeable aromatic 
smell, was alluded to whenever these cups are mentioned by 
the Poets. Athenseus (Deipnosoph.l. xi. 2.) having mentioned, 
that, in the composition of certain vases, they used clay wrought 
up and baked with arojmatics, a French writer cited by Du- 



v. 199 — 200. Sat. vi. Juvenal. 145 

The pledge which on a guilty sister's hand 
Agrippa plac'd, in that infatuate land 200 

saulx fell upon the conjecture that myrrh, blended with this 
earth and formed into cups, constituted the Vas Myrrhinum. 
The inquiry seems to have been a favorite one with the French 
academicians, but one of the most learned of them, L' Archer, 
in his Memoir, published 1779, does not bring it to any 
satisfactory conclusion. 

V. lQg. The pledge which on, Sfc. Berenice was the daugh- 
ter of the elder Agrippa, and accusedof incest with her brother 
of the same name, the last king of Judaea. She was exceed- 
ingly handsome, but of a constitution, says Bayle, which gave 
a flat contradiction to that of Pindar— 

OLVOUTta.V(TlS 

£v tfayti yXvKsia sgyw, xop'ov 8' s^et 
kcu [j.a\i,xat To, regrfv' ctvQs' Atp^oSitrnx.. 
Itwasalleg^d of Titus that when he heard of the death of Galba 
at Corinth, in his voyage home he returned into Judsea, for 
the sake of this lady : Tacitus denies the motive, although he 
admits the acquaintance. I Neque abhorrebat a Berenice 
juvenilis animus : sed gerendis rebus nullum ex eo impedi- 
mentum.' Under the protection of the brother mentioned in 
the text, Berenice visited Rome in the 4th consulship of Ves- 
pasian. There she became openly the mistress of Titus, and 
lived with him in the palace, till he was obliged to send her 
away (invitus invitam) from the murmurs of the people. — 
After a time she came back to Rome, but Titus did not then 
care to renew the connexion. He was now seated on the Impe- 
rial throne and is complimented on his continence, ' although 
Berenice was again in the city.' <ruj<p%wv aairoi xai'fyjs Bsgo- 
viW)S s$ 'Pcu^tjv avfii; sK^ovcrr^. It was in the presence of this 
Berenice and her brother (unworthy indeed of such an honor) 
together with the Roman proconsuls Felix and Festus, that St, 

Juv. K 



146 Sat vi. Juvenal. v. 201—202. 

Where native monarchs with unshodden feet, 
Their sabbath festivals are wont to greet ; 

Paul pleaded his cause, and that of Christianity. — Acts xxiv. 
So far history : but the loves of Titus and Berenice have 
been adorned by the Poet, with graces to which, from what 
has been related, they can lay no claim. Corneille and 
Racine produced rival tragedies on this subject, which long 
divided and probably still divide the French critics. The 
latter of these Poets makes the heroine, virtuous, constant, 
and self-denying '.--during the life-time of Vespasian, he re- 
presents Titus to have given way to all the excess of his pas- 
sion, but when his succession to the empire opens a way for 
its gratification, and to the elevation of Berenice to the throne 
of the Caesars, the love of glory and the dread of Rome, dash 
the chalice of delight from his lips ; Berenice, resigned, and 
wretched, bids him an eternal farewell, and the tragedy ends 
with the fullest measure of those calamities which excite 
pity — but without a death. 

Great as was the genius of Racine, and much as he excels 
in representing the higher and more noble passions, to the 
simple touches of nature in Shakespeare, and Euripides, his 
muse appears a stranger. No-where has he produced, for 
instance, such a simple and touching exclamation as that of 
Medea, when she contemplates the destruction of her children ; 
£1 [xa'/Sa.KOS x§ w -> rtveviAtx, 6' ffiitrtw rsxvwv ! 
The following lines from the Berenice of Racine, though 
merely descriptive, are extremely brilliant : 

De cette nuit, PMnice, as-tu vu la splendeur ? 
Tes yeux ne sont-ilspas tous pleins de sa grandeur ? 
Ces Flambeaux, ce Bucher, cette nuit enflammee, 
Ces aigles, ces Faisceaux, ce Peuple, cette armee, 
Cette foule de Rois, ces consuls, ce senat, 
Qui tous de mon amant empruntoient leur eclat: 



v. 203 — 218. Sat. vi. Juvenal. 147 

Where length of days is graciously bestow'd 
On ancient swine, by an indulgent code ! 

What ! midst a race so numerous shall there be 
Not one from crime, not one from folly free ? — -[205 
Come ! — grant her wealthy, fruitful, fair and chaste 3 
Her halls with imag'd sires profusely grac'd, 
Pure as the dames who with dishevell'd hair 
Stemm'd the huge wave of desolating war, — 210 
A wife of such perfections who can brook ? 
Or at such excellence unhumbled look ? 
Some poor Venusian lass I'd rather take 
Than thee, Cornelia, for the Gracchi's sake, 
If of thy merits I must bear the pride, 215 

And her sire's triumphs must endow my bride : 
W ith thy eternal * Hannibal' away ! 
And rid me, rid me, of thy ' Carthage,' pray, 

Cette Ponrpre, — cet Or qui rehaussoient sa gloire, 
Et ces lauriers, encor temoins de sa victoire 
Ce Port Majestueux, cette douce Presence, fyc* 
V. 201. Where native monarchs. The Jews used to pay 
their vows on certain solemn occasions barefoot. Juvenal, who 
cared little about the matter, and never mentions this people 
without falling into error respecting their usages, here suppo- 
ses that the sabbaths were so kept even by their king*. 
V. 218. And rid me, rid me. 
So Boileau. 

* Si quelq' objet pareil chez moi, deca les monts, 

' Pour m'&pouser entroit avec tons ses grands noms s 
' Le sourcil rehausst d'orgueilleuses chimeres, 

* Je lui dirois bientot,je connois tous vos peress 



148 Sat. vt. Juvenal, v. 219—228. 

* Spare, Phoebus, spare ! Goddess, thy rage sus- 
pend! 
6 The boys are guiltless, at the parent bend 220 
« Thy bow,' Amphion cries, the darts have sped, 
And he, and they, lie number 5 d with the dead. 
A race extinct ! because a parent's pride 
With fair Latona impudently vied, 
Because a vain and vaunting woman strove 225 
With swine below, and goddesses above ! 
O where's the charm of form, wit, wisdom, say, 
If one's compell'd to praise them every day? 



* Ainsi done au plutot delogeant de ces lieux, 
' Allez, Princesse, allez avec tons vous ayeux.' 
V. 225. Because a vain, Sfc. This is, I think, the most 
flatand t feeble part of the whole Satire: he enters, says Ruperti, 
upon a new subject, ' the vanity of prolific ladies on the score 
of their fruitfulness,' a veiny poor object for general attack 
at any rate, and tritely illustrated by the story of Niobe. 
It seems, however, that under this head of the Satire, 
the case of Niobe is cited only to show that the vanity of 
women hurts others as well as themselves — a view of the 
subject the more likely, as the ladies are afterwards celebrated 
for an accomplishment of an opposite kind, viz. the procuring 
of abortions. As to the white sow which he celebrates again in 
Sat. xii. 

Lcetis Phry gibus mirabile sumen 
Et nunquam visis triginta clara mamillis. 
It was one of the prodigies that attended the landing of iEneas, 
and from its color, gave name to Alba. Virg. Mn. iii„ 383. 
vii. 29. viii. 42. 81. 



v. 229 — 248. Sat. vi. Juvenal. 149 

Far better want than be for ever tried 
With choicest gifts to arrogance allied : 230 

The virtues he is forc'd so oft to hear, 
So oft to praise, what mortal will not fear ? 
Then see what trains of affectation come 
To blast the look'd-for comforts of thy home. 
Now Roman beauties are no longer fair, 235 

Greece dictates every phrase and every air. 
No Miss from Sulmo condescends to speak 
About her father's farm, except in Greek ! 
Their rage is Greek, their sorrow and their dread 
Cecropian all — nay, they are Greek in bed. 240 
Girls claim excuse, but thou of seventy-eight, 
To play the Grecian still ! 'tis much too late ! 
ZfiH KAI WTXH, what in public use, 
Th' incentive phrase and language of the stews ! 
Ah us'd in vain ! for words that most inflame 245 
Pronounc'd by thee, can every passion tame ; 
Yes, let them steal more softly on the ears 
Than Hsemus speaks — the face computes the years ! 

V. 237' No Miss from Sulmo. The history of affectation 
might be compiled from the annals of every age and country, 
nor can there well be a greater than the substitution of another 
language for one's own. It was highly commendable in the 
Roman ladies to study the language of Greece for the sake of 
its authors, but they did this in the time of Juvenal for the 
very different and absurd purpose mentioned in the text. 

The introduction of Grecian terms, as well as manners, 
(Niceteria, Trechedipna, &c.) had already excited the repro- 
bation of the patriotic Satirist. Sat. iij. 68. 



150 Sat, vi. Juvenal. v. 249—264. 

Now, if by marriage contracts firmly tied, 
You neither hope, nor wish to love your bride, 250 
Why all that load of sweetmeats throw away, 
Suppers, and cakes, and all that bridegrooms pay ; 
The morning gift, — the plate with coins of gold 
On which our Dacian triumphs are enroll'd ? 
Again, if such a simpleton you prove 255 

As to put on the yoke — and all for love, 
Believe me, friend, that thou hast much to bear, 
A doting husband, none will ever spare. 
Feel what she may, her courage will endure, 
Of his superior penalties secure. 260 

He that's most fit for matrimonial life 
The least of all should venture on a wife ! 

Nought of his own a husband can confer, 
Buy, sell, or change, without consulting her : 

V. 251. Why all that load. An allusion is here made to 
the usages of a Roman marriage. 1. Coena, the marriage 
banquet ; 2. Mustaceum, the bride-cake, a custom not yet 
quite disused; 3. Ulud quod pro prima nocte datur— the 
Morgengabe of the north. The last industrious editor of Juve- 
nal has cited the recipe for a Roman bride-cake from Cato, 
deR.R.c. 121. 

Mustaceos sicfacito : 
Farince siligine modimn unum musto conspergito; 
Anisum, cuminum, Adipis P. II. casei libram ; et de 

virga 
Lauri deradito ecdem addito ; et ubi definxeris lauri folia 
Subtus addito, qunm coques. 
A piece of such cake was given to the guests as an * apopho- 
reton,' or gift to be taken home. 



v. 265' — 286. Sat. vi. Juvenal. 151 

To her thy heart's affections all must bend, 265 
Her peevish whim excludes thy ancient friend — 
The right of Testament each bawd can claim, 
Rogues, Panders, Players, all their heirs can name, 
But she shall dictate thine — not one or two, 
Nor those least hated, and despis'd by you. 270 
c Sir, bid that slave be crucified* — f but stay, 
* His crime ? — to take from man his life away, 
' Demands an awful pause'— ' so ! slaves are men! 
6 Guilty or guiltless be the wretch — what then ? 
' Begone, — nor longer about justice whine : 275 
\ Let this suffice thee — 'twas my order— mine !' 

Thus reigns the wife, till tir'd of ruling you, 
She seeks new empire, and engagements new : 
Sick of the change, these new engagements spurns, 
To thy deserted bed once more returns, 280 

While on the porch she quits, the wreaths are seen, 
And all the nuptial boughs hang fresh and green : 
So, ere five autumns yet be past and gone, 
Her eighth fond lord, thy partner may have known, 
And on her tomb posterity shall find 285 

Thy honor'd name with seven successors join'd. 

V. 2So\ Thy honor d name with, fyc. 1 he Roman women 
were (according to some) stinted to eight divorces, after which 
number the law took it for granted that the lady was somehow 
to blame, and she became a reputed adulteress on the next oc- 
casion. It seems also (from this passage) to have been a custom to 
inscribe on the tomb of the dear deceased a list of all her hus- 
bands, not merely the name of the last who had enjoyed that 
honor. The Roman divorces were admitted on very light 



152 Sat. vi. Juvenal, v. 287 — 296. 

Ne'er shall thy home be free from brawls and strife, 
While thy wife's mother breathes the breath of life, 
Her well train'd child to plunder she will teach 
All that of thine remains within her reach, 290 
To gay gallants the rescript will indite 
In gentle phrase, terms civil and polite ; 
Will scatter dust in each suspicious eye, 
And quickly find the price of secrecy. 
Sometimes, to make the surety doubly sure, 295 
Archigenes the feign* d disease must cure, 



grounds, although marriage with them was a religious cere- 
mony, and not as in France a mere contract entered into before 
the civil magistrate. The formulary was extremely brief; 
even shorter than the dismissal which Juvenal gives us in 
this satire, 'jam gravis es nobis,' fyc. it was comprised in four 
words, ' Res tuas tibi habeto.' 

V. 296. Archigenes the feign' d, SfC Archigenes was a 
physician at Rome in much repute, and moreover of such 
merit, as to have obtained the favorable testimony of Galen, Me 
chieftain of an opposite sect ! from whose authority it appears, 
that he left a great number of works (among the rest ten 
books on fevers) all of which have perished ; a catalogue of 
his writings is however given by Aetius. 

Pliny gives a list of several physicians at Rome who 
enjoyed from the Emperors a pension of 250 Sestertia, more 
than 2000/. per annum. Yet, in the reign of Claudius, one of 
these doctors, by name Stertiuius, complained to the Emperor 
of the smallness of this annuity, (which had been raised to 
500 Sestertia, and told him (a curious reason for desiring an 
augmentation,) that he could make 600 by his practice in the 
city. (The Sestertium is computed at 8/. Is. 5d.) The brother 
of Stertinius enjoyed the same gratuity, and although they 
spent vast sums, it must be confessed, in a very public spirited 



v. 297—298. Sat. vi. Juvenal. 153 

And while he largely on the case descants, 
The hot adulterer in concealment pants. 

manner, by adorning their native city of Naples, they left a 
fortune of 300,000 Sesterces. Vectius Valens entered upon 
his medical career with the eclat of an adulterous connection 
with Messalina ; Eudemus began by an intrigue with Livia, the 
wife of Drusus Caesar : the first of these persons became very 
insolent, ' rabie quadam in omnes eevi medicos; quali pru- 
dentia ingenioque vel ab uno argument o cestimari potest : cum 
monument o suo (quod est Appia via) Iatronicem se inscrip- 
serit.' His success, it seems, depended on suavity of manners, 
which, says Pliny, were so bland and courteous thatnoplayeror 
chariot-driver could exceed him ; however, in time he lost his 
popularity and was supplanted in much of his practice by the 
grave looks and assumed sagacity of another adventurer, Cri- 
nas of Marseilles : 'Cautior, religiosiorque qui ad siderum mo- 
llis ex Ephemeride Mathematica cibos dando, horasque observan- 
do auctoritate eum prcecessit.' These two physicians ' regebant 
Fata,'and were consulted by all Rome according to the taste 
of individuals for Affability or for Oracular Response, till there 
suddenly arrived, (repente) a new competitor called Charmis, 
who condemned of course all former doctors and systems, 
declared against the great and prevailing luxury of Rome, the 
warm bath, and directed his patients to plunge into cold 
water : etiam hibernis algoribus mersit cegros in Lacus : et 

VIDEBAMUS SENES CONSULARES USQUE IN OSTEN- 
tationem rigentes! Nee dubium est OMNES ISTOS, 
famam novitate alt qua aucupantes, ANIMAS statim nos- 
tras NEGOTIARI. Hinc illce circa cegros misera; senfen- 
iiarum concertationes (Consultations) nullo idem censente 
ne videatur accessio alterius. 

We see pretty clearly then the opinion of a tolerable judge 
respecting the latiic art and its professors, and are less surprised 



154 Sat. vi. Juvenal, v. 299 — 302. 

Dost thou expect a mother should impart 

A code of morals foreign to her heart ? 300 

Ah no, these hoary sinners find their gain 

In the lewd daughters whom to vice they train. 

at the impertinence of a certain monument on the Appian way,* 
which recorded that its tenant perished ' Turha medicorum.' 

Having discussed many of their moral excellences, intrigues, 
poisonings, forging wills &c. this useful writer, who has 
oddly found a physician for his editor and commentator, pro- 
ceeds to accuse the Roman practitioners (who were all 
foreigners — mostly Greeks,) of the profoundest ignorance— he 
is so unreasonable as to infer that, because Mithridate consisted 
of fifty-four articles, some of them must needs be good for 
nothing ; and so wicked as to announce that several of the 
Faculty, in place of Cinnabar, (one of the articles which enters 
into this famous compound) made use of red-lead or minium 
by mistake : ' which, says he, we shall prove to be poison, when 
we come to the paints.' — Let us not be inconsolable! for though 
there be some still perhaps who scarcely know the difference s 
■Non sunt artis ista sed hominum. 

Pliny was no stranger to the true secret of all the delusions 
and artifices, which the soi-disdnt Pretender has ever, or will 
ever attempt, viz. the credulity of human nature. No phy- 
sician, says he, except he be a Greek, can maintain the small- 
est authority over his patient, even though the patient be 
totally ignorant of the language: and not only so, but if he hap- 
pen to have some slight acquaintance with fhe language of his 
medical attendant, his confidence diminishes in proportion. 
' Itaque Hercufe, in hac artium sola evenit tit cuicunque 
medicum se professo, statim credatur, cum sit pei'iculum 
in nullo mendacio majus. Non tamen illud intuemur : 
Adeo bland a est spekandi pro se ctjioue du-l- 

CEDO.' 



v. 303—310. Sat vi. Juvenal. 155 

Now scarce a cause in all the courts is heard, 
By woman's meddling spirit not preferr'd. 
Plaintiffs, if not accus'd, they doat on law, 305 

Write their own briefs — and squabble for a straw. 
Celsus himself might from these casuists learn, 
The points on which his pleadings best may turn. 

In toils athletic how the sex excel, [310 

Their mantles — their Cerome — who knows not well ? 

V. 309. In toils athletic. The picture which follows is 

so entirely abhorrent from the habits of modern times, that 

it cannot now be much relished. It is however a very finished 

specimen of the graphical powers of the poet. The female 

athlete, luxurious even in her coarsest enjoyments, makes use 

of the rug or endronris, (which was thrown about the wrestlers 

when, after being much heated, they ceased from exercise) 

but it is spun of Tyrian wool. The notion of an auction was 

a very happy one for introducing a catalogue of the lady's 

armour, and weapons. One cannot but admire that women 

should not at all times have well understood their own real 

strength, that they should ever have had recourse to exploits 

which men must in every age have detested, that, in fine, they 

could possibly overlook the undeniable proposition that, to be 

amiable, a woman must be supposed to need protection. All 

the other attributes of Minerva are forgotten in her armour, 

and we think only of the blue-eyed goddess, as of a strong, 

athletic, and somewhat masculine personage, not unworthy of 

the peculiar honors of her birth. 

But the Roman ladies were merely at a loss for something 
to do ; and perhaps most of the follies of human nature, not im- 
mediately dependent on passion, owe their origin to our natural 
impatience of idleness, and to our sense of relief in any 



156 Sat. vi. Juvenal, v. 311— 332. 

The Stake all notch'd by blows well aim'd and 

keen, 
Who lives within the walls and has not seen ? 
Others, and still more exemplary dames, 
(Of merit meet for Flora's harlot games,) 
Desert the schools, fly to the public shows, 315 

Pick out their man, and fight with real foes ! 
Nor pause, to put the ponderous helmet on, 
And laugh at fame to win a base renown. 
(Yet would they not, my friend, change sex with you, 
"Whose joys compar'd to theirs are cold and few !) 
Oh, if the wardrobe should be brought to sale, [320 
The greaves, the gauntlet, and the coat of mail, 
The boots, which on the stage thy charmer wore, 
What exhibition could divert thee more ! 
Yet these be they whom silky robes oppress, 325 
Whose tender frames, e'en cobweb films distress ; 
And now she stamps, and now she bends her low, 
And glides adroitly from the falling blow. 
How firm her step, how menacing her stride ! 
Laugh — canst thou help it ?— when she steps aside. 
Daughters of Lepidus, of Fabius, say, [330 

In your austere and unforgiving day, 



state which dispels ennui: occupation being so precious an in- 
gredient, or rather so much an essential in human happiness, 
that, says Bishop Home, 'I have seen a man come home in high 
spirits from a funeral, merely because he had the ordering of 
it/ 



v. 333—260. Sat. vi. Juvenal. 157 

What actress would have brav'd the public hiss 
In such a garb, at such a scene as this ? 

Thy very bed shall teem with endless strife, 335 
So soon as it receive thy tigress wife. 
Sleep on that pillow shall no more be thine, 
There shall thy gentle partner sob and whine, 
Against pretended concubines inveigh 
With tears, which at the slightest call obey, 340 
Which ever in their fruitful station stand, 
And burst in torrents at the first command. 
Fond cuckold ! who believ'st that this is love, 
And that these sun-shine storms her passion prove ! 
With eager lips, go, kiss those tears away— 345 
Yet what, ah what, I wonder, would'st thou say, 
If the recesses of thy jealous whore, 
And all her letters, thou might'st there explore. 
But soft !— you find her in a friend's embrace, 
Perhaps a slave's — now say, is this a case 350 

In which the summit of the casuist's art, 
Can aught of doubt or subterfuge impart ?. 
Quintilian's self from the defence would fly, 
Then, fairest lady ! thou thyself shall try— 
* Long since 'twas settled, and agreed, that you 355 
c Should your own pleasures, unconstrain'd, pursue. 
6 For me, then, is there no indulgence, none ? 
'Make all the noise you please, Sir, sigh and 

groan, 
' Have I no feelings ? are no passions mine ?' 
O ! when detected, most of all they shine, 360 



158 Sat. vi. Juvenal, v. 361 — 376. 

Then crime supplies, with courage, and with fire, 
Or gives them wits, or sharpens all their ire. 

O ! from what fountains hateful and accurst, 
Have these foul floods of dire corruption burst ? 
Their lowly fortunes kept our females chaste, 365 
New duties ere the shades of night were past 
Resum'd, the hardships of an humble home, 
And hands made coarse with toil — protected Rome : 
Stern Hannibal's all-desolating power, 
And their Lords station' d on the Colline tower : 37G 
While these remain'd, the mischief kept afar — 
Then peace, with sorer evils fraught than war, 
Arriv'd, and Luxury her flag unfurl'd, 
Inflicting vengeance for a conquer'd world ! 

Since Rome from want and hardships was secure, 
All crime was rife, and every vice mature : [375 



V. 363. O from ivhat fountains. In this passage of con- 
spicuous beauty, the poet abates somewhat of his rigor 
against the sex. In the beginning of the Satire he excluded 
his countrywomen altogether, by confining the virtue of 
chastity to the golden age : he now allows them to have 
been virtuous before they became luxurious : the history of 
his own country, and of the world, which shows the insepa- 
rable connection between immorality and a high state of 
civilization, has fixed upon one memorable line in this pas- 
sage, the seal of unquestionable truth. The Decline and Fall 
of the Roman Empire is indeed briefly comprehended in it. 

Savior armis 
Luxuria incubuit victumque ulciscitur orbem. 



v< 377 — 405. Sat. vi. Juvenal. 159 

To the seven hills, foul Sybaris drew near, 
Miletus, Rhodes — all found disciples here : 
Hither, with all her train, corruption flows, 
Here, lewd and drunk, Tarentum twines the rose, 
Wealth quickly crush'd the virtue of the land, [380 
And brought base morals from a foreign strand ! 

They, who each night, incentive meats devour, 
Drink essenc'd wines at midnight's deepest hour, 
Till spins the roof in swift gyrations round, 385 
And lights, seen double, from the board rebound, 
Spurn every law, which nature fram'd to bind 
The wayward will of an ungovern'd mind ! 

What Maura to Collatia will relate, 
Doubt if you can, and on what themes they prate ; 
Whene'er yon mouldering altar they descry, [390 
Where all may read ' to female chastity.' 
Here every night their litters they forsake, 
And irrigate the place, for insult's sake ; 
Whate'er besides they do, the Orb serene 395 

Alone beholds — the remnant of the scene 
Thyself perchance next morn, thyself shalt tread, 
Near the foul spot, by some appointment led. 

Of the good Goddess, and that secret shrine, 
Whose shameless vot'ries, red with draughts of wine, 
The frantic Maenads of Priapus bound [400 J 

With tresses unconfin'd, and whirl them round > 
In rapid motion to the Trumpet's sound, ) 

All, all have heard : — Gods ! what a furious gust 
Bursts from the crew, what shouts of leaping lust ! 



160 Sat. vi. Juvenal, v. 406 — 427. 

Impure Laufella hangs a wreath on high, [405 
In lewdest games, the price of victory ! 
And Medullina in the well fought day, 
From all opponents bears the prize away. 
She that excels in these athletic feats, 410 

With warm affection every sister greets : 
Done to the life, here are no idle shows ; 
Old Nestor's rupture they would discompose — 
Not hoary Priam's self with age grown cold, 
Such exhibitions could, unstirr'd, behold ! 415 

Urg'd to its height, can lust no more refrain, 
Behold the sex unvarnish'd now, and plain ! 
The sacred hour is come — c admit the men' — 
' Madam, they sleep.'- — * Your hood — fetch others, 
then — [420 

' None, say you, none ? our slaves, at least, are here, 
c Bid them — bid all the watermen appear ?' 
Deny them these — cut off all human aid, 
The very brute creation they'll invade ! 

Would our most ancient and time-honor'd rites, 
Had still been strange to these atrocious sights ! 
But now, behold, the Indian and the Moor, [425 
In harpers' guise, who trod the sacred floor 

V. 424. Would our most ancient. The story of Clodius, 
who in the habit of a female got into the house of Cassar, 
where the Roman ladies were celebrating the mysteries of the 
Bona Dea, and where he accomplished the object of his 
intrusion, is too generally known. Juvenal touches upon the 
scrupulous exclusion of males, with great humor. Mils con- 
sents testiculi, fyc. 



Vi 428-7-449. Sat* VI, Juvenal* 161 

Have heard long since, those awful precincts where 
Aught that of sex displays is veil'd with care, 
Where e'en the mouse respects the well-known law, 
And, if not female, hastens to withdraw! [430 
None scoft'd religion then, nor dar'd revile 
The rites of Numa with a scornful smile, 
Nor view'd his fragile vase with cold disdain, 
Wrought from the plastic soil of Vatican ; 435 
But times are chang'd, and now, too well 'tis known ! 
Each Fane maintains a Clodius of its own. 

Of sapient friends, the voice I seem to hear : 
4 Confine her— -lock her up — place sentries near :' 
But who shall keep the keepers ? she begins 440 
With these the first, and their connivance wins, 
Lust, lust alike, in rich and poor you meet, 
In her that tramps the flints with wounded feet, 
Or whom tall Syrians, thro* the motley throng, 
Bear in voluptuous indolence along. 445 

The Circus, vain Ogulnia must frequent, 
Altho' in garments for th' occasion lent, 
The train of slaves who wait their lady's call, 
The chair, the chairmen,-— all are borrow'd, all ! 



V. 446. The next failing imputed to women is extrava- 
gance, concerning which, Juvenal begins with a very promi- 
sing tirade ; but in a few lines he relapses into the more 
prolific subject of their turpitude, imputing to them 
another and a more monstrous enormity, in finding constant 
employment for Heliodorus a celebrated surgeon, concerning 
whom see Paul. iEginet. iv. 4£)» 

JlLXh L 



162 Sat vi. Juvenal. v. 450— 475, 

For smooth Athletes, the last small vase is sold, 450 
And the last ounce of the paternal gold I 
Thousands, alas ! by poverty are tried, 
But all seem strangers to its honest pride : 
None, none will practise virtues, she detests, 
Or cares for counsels which the purse suggests :■ 
Of men (discipled by the ant,) a few [455 

Prepare betimes for evils they foreknew. 
But prodigal in ruin, woman still 
Expects some miracle the void to fill, 

As IF THE COIN FROM QUICKENING GERMS 
WOULD BURST, 460 

And a new harvest soon replace the first ! 
As if the chest could its own loss restore, 
And still be pillag'd, but to fill the more ! 

There be, to whom the eunuch's kiss is dear, 
The soft embrace devoid of every fear, 465 

Where all without abortives is secure- — 
Supreme enjoyment ! when of growth mature 
To Heliodorus is the youth consign'd, 
And all that safely can, is left behind ! 
That youth an eunuch by his mistress made, 470 
Stalks thro' the bath conspicuously array'd ; 
The god of gardens jealous of his fame 
Turns from th* unequal rivalship with shame. 

Some, music charms 5 these love the chorded 
lyre 
With Sard adorn'd, their fingers never tire, 475 



Vc 476—495. Sat. vi. Juvenal. 163 

The house with everlasting tinkling rings, 

While the stiff Plectrum strikes the sounding 

strings : 
And oft they kiss that Plectrum and the shell. 
Which deanHedymeles had lov'd so well. 

With wine, and meal, and pious offering comes 
A noble supplicant to Vesta's domes, [480 

Lamian her race — her errand, to inquire 
If the wreath'd oak should deck her PolhVs lyre ! 
What had she done, if at her sickening child, 
No more the ever-smiling doctor smil'd ? 48.5 

Before the altar, lo ! she veils her face, 
Repeats each form and usage of the place ; 
Pale, when the entrails smoke, too tender dame ! 
With sad forebodings for an harper's fame ! 

Say, eldest of the Gods, O Janus, say, 490 

Do ye reply to such inquirers, pray ? 
Your occupations must indeed be few, 
An Heaven, a place for idlers, if ye do : 
This begs your aid for her comedian friend, 
Her ranting hero, this would recommend, 495 



V. 490. Say, eldest of the Gods. There is scarcely a more 
lively sarcasm on the Polytheism of his age (for which Juve- 
nal had a very hearty contempt) throughout his Satires, than 
this appeal to Janus. If indeed there be any one subject on 
which the wit and humor of the Satirist is more successfully 
displayed than another, it is this. Yet his ridicule of the Gods 
of his country must not be wholly placed to the account of 
superior sagacity.— -They had long been getting unpopular. 



164 Sat. vi. Juvenal, v. 496—522- 

Soon will the legs of the Aruspex swell, 
Who stands so long your embassies to tell. 

But let them sing — 'tis better than to roam 
Like her that wanders, only strange at home, 
Through all the crowded streets, and loves to walk 
With Generals, and of public news to talk ; [500 
Who knows throughout the globe whate'er is done, 
At home, abroad, — -the stepdame and her son— • 
Scythia or Thrace, — thro' all alike she'll run ; 
What new adulteries are soon design'd, 505 

What wives sagacious, and what husbands blind ; 
She tells who 'twas that wrought the widow's shame y 
And keeps her reckoning for the pregnant dame ! 
Lust's newest phrase and last imported modes 
Are hers, some new disaster she forebodes 510 
To Parthia — and unless the comet lies, 
Can now predict Armenia's destinies ! 
She meets the earliest rumors at the gates, 
And some she hears — -and some she fabricates r 
4 Niphates swoln with rains has pour'd his flood 515 
* O'er all the lands,- where towns andV cities stood,. 
' 'Tis ruin all' — with such authentic news 
The ear of every idler she'll abuse. 

Yet more revolting to the generous mind- 
Is that implacable ferocious kind, 520* 
Who, if a howling cur their slumbers break,. 
Will scourge the master for the mongrel's sake, 



& 523 — 540. Sat. vl Juvenal. 165 

Rage rules the day, and rage would rule the 
night, 
Did not the duties of the bath invite ". 
There, 'midst a store of essences and oils, 525 

Languid and faint with voluntary toils, 
The ponderous lead, with vigorous arm she wields, 
Till nature to the strenuous effort yields : 
Within her halls, while each insulted guest, 
With desperate hunger^ and with sleep opprest, 530 
Expects the hostess — glowing she returns, 
Close at her feet they place replenished urns, 
She swallows down an hasty draught or two, 
To cleanse the stomach, and its powers renew ; 
In copious stream returns the smoking wine, 535 
And lakes upon the marble pavement shine ! 
While her disgusted lord with maddening brain, 
And eyes close shut, can scarce his rage restrain. 

Some, ere the guests at table take their seat, 
Will Virgil's verses by the score repeat, 540 



V. .5^3. Rage rules the day. This Bath scene is both 
very filthy and very faithful. We had better pass over it 
quickly, to an inimitably humorous delineation of a noisy, 
half-informed, troublesome, female pedant, who gives way in 
her turn to a nauseous set of practitioners in ointments, 
pastes, and cosmetics, and all the mysteries of the Roman 
toilet. The picture of the lady put out of humor, first by 
her husband's negligence, Ihen by the awkwardness of her 
tire-woman, we must allow to be very successful, whatever 
we may think of the truth of it, 



166 Sat. vi. Juvenal, v. 541 — 568. 

Become the champions of Elissa's fame, 
And if one chance to mention Homer's name, 
6 Why, as to Homer, Sir,' she smartly cries, — 
And then at length th 5 illustrious rivals tries. 
In either scale their several claims suspends, 54<5 
And to the beam with critic eye attends ! 
The loudest bawlers of the Forum cease, 
Oblig'd, when she begins, to hold their peace \ 
The Lawyer yields the point without a word, 
The bellowing Crier can no more be heard ; 550 
All, all, from mere despondency are mute, 
Nor ev'n a second woman will dispute ! 
Ten thousand clamorous bells together rung 
Match not th' eternal clatter of her tongue. 
From needless noise of horns and cymbals cease; 
The laboring moon her din will soon release ! \_555 

With many a stiff, precise, pedantic line 
Of right and fit the boundaries she'll define : 
Methinks that ladies bless'd with parts so rare, 
With shorten'd tunic and with legs half bare 56Q 
Should to Sylvanus sacrifice the swine, 
And bathe with men, and pay the current coin. 

Let not the Matron that shall share thy bed, 
Be deep in style, or dialectics read, 
With short and crabbed Enthymems confute, 56$ 
Nor on each point of history dispute : 
'Twere well they understood not some at least 5 
Palsemon's she-disciples I detest, 



V. 569 — 598. Sat. vi. Juvenal. 167 

Whose words in fetters move by rote and rule, 
And oft remand my ignorance to school j 570 

Ouote verses that I never wish to hear, 
And make each country-cousin quake with fear : 
A truce, dear lady, with your prompt replies, 
And let a blundering husband Solecise ! 

if wealth be added to these pompous claims, 575 
Nor fear restrains them now, nor censure shames ; 
Ears deck' d with pearls and arms with bracelets bound, 
Denote a tribe which nothing can confound : 
Of all life's various evils, few so great 
As woman privileg'd by large estate. 580 

Some with Poppsean oils anoint the skin, 
And swathe the cheeks in meal, and keep within. 
Ye wretched husbands, who are doom'd to taste 
With every kiss some curs' d adhesive paste, 
Mark, how the wives ye daily loathe at home, 585 
To spruce gallants with bright complexions come ! 
Whate'er of sweets the slender Indian sends, 
For them she buys, for them alone she blends : 
The foul integument, the hideous smear, 
Coat after coat comes off, till all be clear ; 590 
Wash'd by that bland emulsion for the sake 
Of which, to Scythia exil'd, she would take 
Milch-asses by the score,— -a goodly train ! 
Behold thy lady now herself again ! 
But tell us pray, all dress'd in oil and meal, 595 
Which nought of human countenance reveal, 
That mass in viscous pastes and plasters bound, 
Is there a face beneath it or a wound ? 



168 Sat. vi. Juvenal. v. 599 — 628. 

And 'twere worth while a moment to afford, 
Their day's routine of duties to record : 600 

First, if the frigid husband fail'd to keep 
His punctual vigils and pretended sleep, 
For his neglect the household shall atone, 
And pay the smart of slumbers not their own. 
Maidens and men — the awkward and the slow, 605 
Must expiate his fault with many a blow, 
See many a cudgel crack* d on many an head, 
And many a back with whips and scourges red. 
Some, flog per contract, at so much per day, 
And keep a skilful arm in constant pay : 610 

Paint all the while, chat with a female friend, 
To sage critiques on broider'd robes attend, 
Or con the day's or night's engagements o'er, 
Till stoutest arms can wield the lash no more ; 
Then, while the chamber vibrates with the tone, 613 
' Scoundrels ! I'll scourge ye worse than this !— be-, 
gone I s 

Fear'd more than stern Sicilia's Lord, her reign 
Of terror, agitates the servile train : 
Would she adorn with more than usual taste, 
Or to that bawd of bawds desires to haste, 620 
Isis 'yclep'd ; or does th' adulterer wait, 
Pacing some distant street, and think her late, 
Poor Psecas with her hair by handfulls torn 
Her patient lady's tresses must adorn. 
' Pray why is this' (then swiftly falls the thong) 
* So stiffly turn'd, and why is this so long ?' [625 
Can Psecas help it, gentlest fair one, say, 
If your own nose displeases you to-day ? 



v. 629—650. Sat. vi. Juvenal. 169 

A second hapless maiden must prepare 

To twist anew the refractory hair ; 630 

This done, the matron sage, of old the maid, 

Now from the ranks advanc'd, must lend her aid ; 

Each, in the place which knowledge of the ait 

Or age assigns, their sentiments impart, 

And of their mistress a sweet counsel take, 635 

As if her life, her honor were at stake J 

Thus row on row ascends, and tier on tier, 

You'd think Andromache herself were here, 

To view the stately figure from before : 

Behind, alas ! an heroine no more. 640 

Yet let us not each small device refuse ; 

Haply, without the aid of tragic shoes, 

The pygmy fair-one might attempt in vain 

To touch the lips of her gigantic swain. 

Her husband's neighbour, save that of a tie 645 
More near, his friends insulted might supply 
Some slight suspicion, and his squander'd coin,— 
Jn her a wife, what mortal could divine ? 

Change we the scene. Now from Bellona's domes 
A monstrous eunuch with his chorus comes, 650 



V. 64^. Change we the scene. In this next division of 
the Satire, the imputations of superstition and credulity, 
which he heavily charges on women, give occasion to the 
poet to run over the current impostures of his times, and to 
furnish us with a very full notice of those inconceivable fol- 
lies: we may observe here, that this overflow of Imposture 
succeeded to, and indeed was naturally produced by, a de- 
cline of religion— such as it was. These sketches, as every 



170 Sat. vi. Juvenal, v. 651—666. 

Who tried the virtues of the sharpen' d shell 
The hot rebellion of the blood to quell. 
Cease all the drums — the croaking crew around 
Are silent ; — then, in Phrygian turban crown' d, 
Their chief begins, and with terrific air 655 

Bids, Of September's austral blasts beware, 
Unless the hundred eggs, his usual claim, 
And all her sin-infected robes, the dame, 
With meet contrition mov'd, without delay, 
Produce, and thus the year's transgressions pay. 660 

Her Envoy next if snow-white Io send, 
The superstitious fool her steps will bend 
To frozen Tiber's side, there break the ice, 
And plunge her in the gelid current thrice I 
This done, th' unsparing goddess still to please, 665 
Round Tarquin's field she crawls on bleeding knees i 

reader of Juvenal must have remarked, are so exceedingly 
graphical that a painter might work from them. 

The use of eggs was common in lustrations — Vestes Xeram* 
pelims (the color of dried vine-leaf) were usually worn by 
Matrons (vet. schol.) The interpreters of this passage usu- 
ally present the Priest of Cvbele with these cast-off garments, 
and make the begging of them the object of his visit. The 
gift of an hundred eggs would indeed have been but a sorry 
reward to so large a party. The lady, however, not only 
gives the eggs and the old clothes, but gets an imposition 
which it must have required all her piety to perform. Des- 
perate as these absurdities appear, the popular superstitions 
of the Highlands fully equal them.— Superstition indeed seems 
to prevail (though in a different taste) pretty equally under 
all degrees of civilization. See Browne's Vulgar Errors, 
— Bourne's Popular Antiquities, &c. 



v . 667—676. Sat. vi. Juvenal. 171 

At Io's bidding, lo she hastes to bring 
A cruise of water from the tepid spring 
Of MerGe's isle, to sprinkle on the floor 
Where Isis dwells, and sheep were pen'd of yore. 670 
These, these be they, with whom the Gods delight 
To hold high converse in the still of night ! 
No wonder that, so warn'd, she seems to hear 
The very Goddess whispering in her ear ! 

And next Anubis and his bald pate crew, 675 
With secret scorn the gaping crowd that view, 

V. 675. And next Anubis. u e. the priest of Anubis, the 
3011 of Osiris and Isis, who, according to the common inter- 
pretation, is made to jeer at his own God, but more naturally, 
according to the emendation of Ruperti, (adopted, I observe, 
from Holyday) at the mob, which the procession collects in 
its progress. The following passage, 

Ansere magno, 
Scilicet et tenui popano corruptus Osiris, 
is inimitably humorous, and most successfully levelled at the 
practice of making presents of such perishable commodities 
to Gods and Goddesses. But the donations of gold and silver, 
which were perpetually accumulating in the ancient temples, 
and which arose to a vast amount, were a very useful con- 
trivance for which the inventor deserves credit, This practice 
really converted the Temple into an JErarium, and afforded a 
considerable resource for purposes of national importance : it 
was but for the minister to obtain a loan from the God, who sel- 
dom, it is to be presumed, resisted. So well indeed was this 
little arrangement understood, that the golden ornaments of 
the ivory statue of Minerva in the Parthenon, seem to have 
been made to take off, and to pawn occasionally tor the exi- 
gencies of the state. At least this measure was expressly 
proposed by Pericles in summing up the resources of the 
state, at the commencement of the Peloponnesian War. 



172 Sat. vi. Juvenal, v. 677 — 686. 

The threshold throng j their leader, if the dame 
On sacred days forbidden pleasures claim, 
Discovers by the silver serpent's nod 
The hot displeasure of the watchful God : 680 

Yet of these sighs and penitential tears, 
Perhaps, — -from him — when great Osiris hears-— 
Ye Gods ! what fatal ills can gifts produce, 
See great. Osire, corrupted— by a goose ! 

These gone, a trembling Jewess next appears 685 
Whose whisper'd tales allure her willing ears : 

IL-fi 5s v.%1 rcc ex. r'uy aXXwv legcoy rfgocsT'iSsi ^yjuara, ovk 
oXiya, o'lg ^rpsrrtiou avtov's' x-ou r t v wavu s^zigywvrca jfa.v?ioi>, 
xa; ATTHS THS ©EOT, TOIS IIEPIKEIMENOIS XPT- 
£1012. aitsipaivs <5" s^ov ro ar/a.Xua rs&ragako'Jfei raXavra 
'sYa0«,oV yjvnov aitspkv, iiau 1IEPIAIPET0N ElNAI AIIAN- 
^r j irau,svov^, Se ziti Giurrfeicc, s<py; y^oyvcu j«,tj aXa.<r<rw owtiKorta* 
<rrrj<rai itaXiv ^or^cccn \hzv ovv ovrcoc sQagvvvsv. avfov;. 

V. 6S5. These gone, a trembling Jewess. The Jews were 
scarcely tolerated at Rome, being obliged either to pay a 
lieavy tribute or to quit the city. We have heard of their 
condition in the 3d Satire, as the inhabitants of a wood : 
Pomitian, it seems, obliged them to appear abroad with a 
basket and some hay, as a badge by which they might he 
known, so as not to evade the tax laid upon them — a very 
needless precaution! for the countenance must have been, 
alone, and will always be a sufficient distinction of this mira- 
culously continued people. Much has been written about the 
meaning of the Poet in the words ' Sacerdos arboris,' which, 
I conceive, cannot possibly allude to their local circumstances 
of living in a wood, and still less to any of their ancient 
idolatrous propensities. As Juvenal has made several allusions 
to their religion, and expressly names the ' mysterious' volume 
of their law-giver, 



v. 687 — 710. Sat vi. Id venal,- 173 

Of Solyma, and all her ritual, she 

Th' interpretess ; of that Mysterious Tree s 

High-priestess sage, the internuntial tie 

Between us nether mortals and the sky : 690 

Enough with copper coin her hand to fill, 

The dreams of Jews are had for what you will. 

A pigeon's smoking lungs th' Armenian seer 
Inspects, and handles, and discovers here 
The joys which love, the joys which wealth confers \ 
The will, and the gallant shall both be her's ; [695 
Entrails of whelps, the pullet's quivering heart, 
The child's, — -ye Gods! its secrets shall impart, 
For this most daring maniac deeds will do, 
Which he'd denounce if hinted but by you. 700 

Next the Chaldsean, long inur'd to spell 
The stars' decrees by rules infallible, 
With tidings from the font of Amnion comes, 
(Since all is silence in the Delphic domes, 
And knowledge of futurity no more 705 

Shall man's impatient spirit there explore !) 
But Him, the workings of whose prescient mind 
Have more than once his silly self consign'd 
To banishment, which save its own, foretold 
The fates of all ; whose tablets — to be sold, 7lQ 

Tradidit arcano qnodcunque volumine Moses, 
I conceive it not impossible that here is sor&e allusion to the 
history of our first parents and of Eden, and I have ventured 
on a translation of the passage in that light. 

V. 693. A pigeon's smoking lungs. Whether by the 
words, - interdum et pueri,' a particular reference be meant, 
is not known, The Scholiast says they are an allusion to 



174 Sat. vi. Juvenal. v. 711 — 722. 

A great man's end, the end of Otho's fear, 

Announc'd — Him, all with deepest reverence hear» 

Its fullest confidence the art obtains, 

Or bonds or dungeons when its teacher gains : 

His skill* who keeps himself from dangers free, 715 

None trust at all, or trust unwillingly. 

Not so the sage, who to Seripho sent, 

Escap'd, and scarce escap'd — with banishment. 

To such thy tender Tanaquil repairs 

Eager to learn the issue of her cares ; 720 

Her jaundic'd mother's death by art divine 

Impatient to explore— but mostly thine. 

Egnatius, who first allured the daughter of Bareas Soranus 
to the study of magic, and then informed Nero, who put to 
death both the father and his daughter in consequence. 

V. 71 1 . A great man's end. The Chaldeean, says Juvenal, 
is now at the head of the prophetic art, since the Delphic 
oracle has ceased. The influence of the astrologers had be- 
come excessive, inasmuch as they often ruled the ruler of the 
empire. Tiberius, to whom Juvenal alludes in the 10th Satire, 

■ Augusta in rupe sedentis 

Cum grege Chaldceo, 
was himself a practised astrologer, and a fast friend to the 
art and its professors. Among these persons Seleucus and 
Ptolemy were the most distinguished ; the latter is the person 
here intended, who predicted the death of Galha, — a pre- 
diction with which most probably he flattered Otho, so soon as 
he found out the bent of his mind, and by natural sagacity 
saw the probable course of things. 

Juvenal here points out the grounds on which vulgar confi- 
dence was bestowed on these professors of divination. ' Qui 
pene perii' was the passport for the soundness of the diviner 
*— to have been able to foresee his own fate and to have pro- 



v. 723—738. Sat. vi, Juvenal. 175 

This grave affair once settled, one request 
Remains, which answer'd, sets her soul at rest,— 
Who first, her lover or herself shall die ?— 725 
More precious news can all the Gods supply ? 
Yet has her knowledge limits, nor pretends 
What mischief the malignant planet sends 
Of Saturn to discern, or to the rites 
Of Venus, when the starry sphere invites— 730 
What month to loss devoted, what to gain, 
Are mysteries she pretends not to explain. 

Avoid that sapient plague with all thy care 
Whose hand displays the well-thumb'd calendar, 
Consulting none, consulted now by all — ■ 735 

Whom if her husband and her duty call 
To foreign camps would be content to go, 
Did not Thrasyllus and the stars say No ! 

vided against it was the reverse of recommendation. — Tiberius 
thought more justly on this subject. 

V. 733. Avoid that sapient plague. The next in the pic- 
ture is the lady, whose thumbed ephemerides, (grown yellow 
and greasy, like amber, ceupinguia succinaj guide her actions* 
in the commonest concerns of life, — the time and length of 
her walks, and her hours for food and rest. 

V. 738. Did not Thrasyllus, Sfc. The way in which 
Thrasyllus obtained the confidence of Tiberius was this. 
While he resided at Rhodes the Emperor took a walk with 
any soi-disant Professor of Astrology, and attended by a 
strong slave, along the edge of the cliffs near which his house 
was situated ; and if he judged his replies to savour of vanity 
or fraud, the slave was directed to throw the astrologer into 
the sea, and so the consultation ended, In this situation 



176 SaL vl Juvenal. v, 7S9— 74&. 

Said I to foreign camps ? to the first stone* 
Unless her book preserib'd, she ne'er was known 



Thrasyllus one day found himself, and being there asked by 
tlie Emperor, after giving satisfactory replies to other ques- 
tions, * an su AM quoqile gen'ttalem Ivor am conperisset^ quern tunt 
annum, qualcm diem habere t ?' Our diviner went through a 
number of calculations, grew alarmed by proper degrees as 
they went on, and at length exclaimed that some imminent 
peril was at hand. Tiberius instantly embraced him, and 
ranked him. afterwards among his intimate friends. Let the 
reader who would see a picture of the insufficiency of the 
strongest mind, to find out a clue for itself without the aid* 
of Revelation, read the succeeding chapter, and admire the 
distraction of judgment under which the profound Tacitus 
labored, on the subject of Providence or Fate. Tac. Ann. 
%i. 22. Dio relates the story with a little difference — That 
Thrasyllus had already enjoyed so much of the Emperor's 
confidence, as to make him dangerous, and being on the point 
to be thrown over the rock, hit upon the above device* 

Tiberius might have lived a little longer, to the great delight 
and benefit of the world, but in strict reliance on the assu- 
rances of this Thrasyllus that he would live ten years longer, 
and perhaps too in conformity with his own aphorism, ' That 
every man above thirty should be his own doctor,' he neg- 
lected to call in his physicians. He died before they knew 
he was ill, at Misenum. svoasi psv jol^ sk irksiovo; y% ovov rfgo<r~ 
Sokcuv 3e <$Vj -rtj.y G^u,tvXXov tfgopprj&iv picvoso-fat, ours •rtw'j ixr- 
goig exoiyowfo ft, ours -rtj; hcurr^ [isrefiaWsv ; aAAa 7foAAax^jj■' 
(oia sv y>jf a mi vo<riv pj o^sta Kara, fi§a%v pagdtvo[iEyo'$) rors 
l^sv ovov ova aris^/v^sro, rors Ss avsppcuwro. These last words 
appear to be extremely descriptive of a state not easy to 
describe. — ' Now he was just at the last gasp, now he revived 
•again,'— but no other language can so briefly and strongly 



v. 741 — 757. Sat. vi. Juvenal. 177 



! 



To ride or walk — the calculated page 
Consulted, ere she venture to assuage 
The smarting eye ; who feeble from disease 
Dares not the fever's parching drought appease 
Unless it chance that Petosiris please ! 
The circus and the conjurer's booth they try, [745 
If poor, and listen to each vulgar lie ; 
Or to the road-side Oracles, who vend 
Plebeian fortunes, the fair palm extend. 
From richer fools, their follies and their fears 750 
The Indian or the Phrygian augur hears, 
Or He that renders pure by many a spell 
The spot ill-omen' d where the lightning fell. 
The Fortune of the mob, and vulgar Fate 
Within the Circus hold their petty state j 755 

There, those whose necks no links of gold display 9 
Before the Phalse and the Dolphins, pay 



express the idea. How flat is the translation ' s&penumcro 
imbecillitatem cum valetudine rmitdsset.' 

V. 757. Before the Phalce and the Dolphins. The Circus 
Maximus was three furlongs in length and one in breadth. 
An euripus, moat, or trench filled with water for the exhibi- 
tion of a Naumachia, surrounded three sides of it. High 
buildings for the spectators encircled the whole. On the 
summit of one part of this structure, some wooden towers, 
phalce, were placed as marks for the better guidance of the 
chariot drivers. There also were some pillars surmounted 
with dolphins. — A full account of this Circus, together with a 
plan of it, may be seen in Holyday. — This was the place 
frequented by the lower kind of fortune-tellers. 

Juv. M 



178 Sat, vi. Juvenal. v. 758—779. 

For counsel, c if 'twere better to forsake 
* The Vintner, and the wealthier Grocer take/ 
Yet these of childbirth all the perils bear, 760 

And of the nurse each anxious labor share, 
Perils on splendid beds sustain'd by few — 
So much can blessed art and medicine do ! 
Which either makes them sterile or destroys 
The unborn manhood of adulterous joys. 765 

Fetch it thyself — the cup in which they blend 
Their drugs accurs'd, — for should her flanks extend, 
And should the creature, leaping in her womb, 
From its warm cells,, unwelcome stranger ! come, 
You'd start with horror from the dusky face, 770 
Stamp' d with the black's caress and thy disgrace ; 
And that ill-omen'd and discolor'd heir 
Thy name, thy honors, and thy wealth would share. 

Pass we thy hopes deceiv'd — a spurious breed 
To all the honors of thy race decreed, 775 

Fetch'd from the foul lake's side whence Rome 

derives 
Some noble Names — thanks to our faithful wives ! 
A favor' d spot ! for there at dead of night 
Malignant Fortune bends with fond delight 



V. 776. Fetch'd from the foul lake's side. One of the 
abominations of Rome consisted, as is well known, in the 
exposure of children. Whether by the expression ' ad spurcos 
lacus,' Juvenal intends a particular spot (Lubin selects the 
Velabrian Lake) is not to be certainly ascertained. 



y. 780 — 809. Sat, vi. Juvenal. 179 

O'er the deserted babe — enjoys the jest 780 

Already, warms the foundling in her breast, 
Arranges all the drama, — then removes 
To halls and palaces the mime she loves ! 

Some in Thessalian charms and philtres deal, 
Which on the incautious husband's senses steal, 785 
And leave him in his worthless partner's power. 
To scorn and gibe and insult every hour — 
Thence comes fatuity, the mind o'ercast 
With clouds, and deep oblivion' of the past ! 
But these are trifles, well, thou dost not rave, — 790 
To Nero's uncle, kind Cassonia gave 
(Who'd fear to do what Empress wives have done?) 
A draught of powers no mortal brain could shun ; 
Then, while its phrenzied Lord his sense forsook, 
Rome, and the world's disjointed empire, shook 795 
As if Olympian Jove a maddening draught 
Had from the treacherous hands of Juno quafPd ! 
Less noxious far was Agrippina's treat, 
Which made a dotard's pulses cease to beat, 
And sent the slavering lips, the palsied head, 800 
To join the Gods, —at least to join the dead. 
But This, with all the seeds of mischief stor'd, 
Fill'd with the elements of fire and sword, 
Kindled within the brain a furious rage, 
Which slaughter'd Senates could alone assuage : 805 
So much of horror can one monster brew, 
From one colt's forehead see what scenes ensue ! 

The offspring of their lord's promiscuous love 
That wives should hate,— to this will nature move : 



180 Sat. vi. Juvenal. v. 810 — 830. 

Of his first marriage to destroy the fruits, 810 

This too is fair, — -a right which none disputes ! 
Ye orphan sons who count on large estate, 
Know, in each livid stew, on every plate 
That caustic poisons lurk, — forbear to touch 
Whate'er maternal kindness praises much. 815 

Look well around ye, and with eye discreet, 
Ere ye begin remark what others eat— 
Or let the careful tutor taste your meat. 

Feign we these horrors, and does Satire stride 
O'er realms and regions to her ken denied, 820 
For loftier flights, say, does she plume her wings, 
Sweep with an hand profane the tragic strings, 
And chaunt a lay abhorrent to her own, 
To Latian hills, to Latian skies unknown ? 
O would 'twere so, but hark to Pontia' s voice, 825 
* I slew them both, I slew them, and rejoice : 
4 Myself prepar'd the Aconite, and none 
c Shall share the honor, — 'twas my deed alone.' 
Two at one meal, infernal viper, two ? 
That bloody deed she had rejoic'd to do, 830 

V. 826. I sleiv them both. The history of this Pontia is not 
ascertained, buL her monument was, and probably is, extant, 
unless there were two of the same name and nature, which is 
not likely. 

'Pontia Titi Pontii filia hic sita sum qvie, 
£ duobus natis a me veneno consumptis avaritije 
' opustmiserie mortem mihi conscivi. tu ouisquis 
' es qui hac transis, si pil's es, qu/eso a me oculos 

' AVERTE.' 



v. 8S1 — 842. Sat. vi. Juvenal. 181 

Seven had there been, on seven !— O doubt no more 
The tales of Progne, and the Colchian shore. 
Those matchless monsters of their times, — but hold, 
Their horrid deeds were prompted not by gold ! 
Admire discreetly, — difference it makes, 835 

The hurried vengeance desperate passion takes. 
One less admires, when all is flame within, 
And hurls them headlong on to deeds of sin. 
As when the fissur'd Cliff with bursting sound 
Relieves the Mass long to its summit bound, 840 
Headlong it rolls, attracting far and wide 
The streaming soil, it sweeps the mountain's side ; 



V. 839« As when ihejlssur'd cliff'. This beautiful simile 
bad been already employed both by Homer and Virgil, espe- 
cially by the former, in a much more distinct and expanded 
form. The lines in which I have paraphrased, and so far 
have taken liberty with it, were written after a visit to Cader- 
Idris, from the edge of whose awful precipices we had thrown 
down several stones of the largest size which it was possible 
to roll to the edge of the cliff; thus realizing the Homeric des- 
cription with wonderfully fine effect: one particular of which 

was exhibited in a very striking manner, in the swift recoil, 
the sudden leaps and sweeping curves which these immense 
masses described in their descent ; sometimes starting off from 
a point of rock amidst a cloud of dust produced by the col- 
lision, then rolling on awhile in some of the gullies of the 
mountain, drawing within its vortex a stream of earth and 
loose soil, and after another bound or two reaching the level ; 
rots §' ovri xvXtvhrai, srrtrvpevis itsp* 



182 Sat. vi. Juvenal. v. 843—862. 

From rock to rock in curves fantastic thrown 
Descends, recoiling oft, the smoking Stone, 
Seems now to rest — revives yet once again, 845 
Then falls in distant thunders on the plain. 
But crimes which void of ire's tumultuous glow, 
Computed, cool, deliberately slow, 
I most abhor, — Behold Alcestis fly 
To save an husband's life, rejoic'd to die ! 850 

Were such vicarious death permitted twice, 
These, for a whelp, their lords would sacrifice. 
Worthy of Bel us' line thou still may'st meet, 
And Clytemnestras swarm in every street ; 
But she, their great example, void of skill, 855 
Wielded with aukward hand the murderous bill, 
Now, the envenom'd entrails of the toad 
Securely kills and stains no corpse with blood ; 
Yet if the shrewd Atrides should have quafPd, [860 
Thrice conquer'd Monarch, thy protecting draught, 
They'd strike a blow thy drugs could never heal., 
And quit the poison, — for the surer steel ! 



Argument. 



This very excellent Satire has always been highly esteemed. 
A melancholy unity runs through the piece — the ill success 
of literary labor ; a subject with which the public ear is 
so familiar, that the case needs to be very strongly and 
pathetically stated to excite any interest. It has been so 
stated by one of the most interesting poets of our times, 
by Mr. Crabbe, whose unpatronized Scholar, divided 
between his Edition of Euripides and the intrusive solici- 
tude c de Codice paranda,' is an exquisite draught by the 
hand of no common master. 

This Satire contains specimens of almost every excel- 
lence compatible with the kind of writing, and shows the 
versatility of the powers of Juvenal in an eminent degree. 
His Bard is inimitable ; his reproach to Athens, and the 
lines which follow, the genuine effusions of a fine and 
feeling mind ; the Historian, the Lawyer, the School- 
master are sketches full of force and effect, and the whole 
is interspersed with touches of humor frequent and irre- 
sistible — Numitor who keeps a Mistress and a Lion, but 
cannot afford any thing as a Patron ; — the bronze Lawyer 5 
■ — the hired c ardonyx ; — the Arcadicus Juvenis; — the 
allusion to Chiron and Achilles, and many more. Of the 
first of these Mr. Gibbon observes, that ' if wit consist in 
the ^'scovery of relations natural without being obvious^ 
that of the Poet and the Lion is one of the wittiest possible,' 



184 



PERSONS AND PLACES 



MENTIONED IN THE SATIRE. 



PERSONS, 



PaccIUS, Faustus, Thelesinus, names of obscure Poets, 
That of the latter occurs frequently in Martial. 

Maculonus, any Patron who had a house to lend, and 
lent it. 

Camerinif Barea, the names of two illustrious Families at 
Rome. See Note on Satire in. ' Stoicus occidit 
Bar earn/ fyc. 

Troculeius, a Roman Knight celebrated for his liberality 
by Horace. He divided his estate with his two bro- 
thers, Scipio and Muraena, who were ruined by the 
Civil Wars which placed Augustus on the throne. 

Cotta, a generous Patron, to whom Ovid says, 

Cumque labent alii jactataque vela relinquant, 
Tu lacera. remanes anchora sola rati. 

Lentulus, who receives commendation from Cicero for 
that virtue which occasioned the introduction of his 
name by Juvenal. 



185 

Fabius, some particular individual of that florishing 
family, which was so numerous that it was used in 
stating any hypothetical case requiring names. Clav. 
Ciceron. Ernest. 

Pedo — Causidicus ignotus. 

Mat ho, better known than his associate— a wretched 
Lawyer, and afterwards a florishing Informer. We 
met with his litter in the first Satire. 

Tongillus, a third Pleader, who had recourse to ostenta- 
tion as a specific in his complaint, but did not find 
it answer. 

Paulas, an attentive observer of men and manners, who 
hired a Sardonyx Ring, in compliment to the discern- 
ment and integrity of the Court, where he was to plead. 

Basilus, Cossus, poor, but able Lawyers. 

Vectius or Vettius, a distinguished Rhetorician, com- 
mended by Pliny, xxix. 1 . 

Chrysogonus, Pollio. These are the names of harpers 
in the sixth Satire : here they are plainly Grammarians. 

Ventidius, Pub. Vent. Bassus, born in the territory of 
Picenum, and carried by his captive mother, in the 
triumphal procession of Pompeius Strabo : atter this a 
Carman or a Muleteer. A fortuitous introduction to 
the friendship of Julius Caesar carried him through the 
offices of Praetor and Tribune to that of Consul. 
' Indignant e licet, et fremente populo Romano.' 

Tullius, Servius Tullius, the 6th of the Kings of Rome, 
whose story is again alluded to by Juvenal in the 8th 
Satire, where his history is stated in two lines : 
Ancilla natus, tr abeam et diadema Qiririni, 
Et fasces meruit regum ultimus ilk bonorum* 



186 

Thrasymachus, the name, according to the Scholiast, of 
a distinguished pupil of Plato and Isocrates, who 
settled in Athens, where neglect and misery drove him 
to suicide. 

Secundus Carrinas was driven by the same neglect from 
Athens to Rome : there he began a School, but 
choosing a theme not delightful to the ears of Caligula, 
De Tyrannide, he was quickly banished. 

OVTCU fa dy TO (TUfXTrOlV XOLl fioKTXOtVOg KCU V7T07IT0g 7Tg0f 

tzuvtu. Qfroi'jos rjV, cacrrs xai Kapivvav XsxovvBov p^rogcc, 
qvyufavaou kots, oti Koyov tivol, £V yvpyeivix xarst, TVguvvwv 
sittsv. Dion. 



PLACES. 

Aganippe, Fons Heliconis in Boeotia, Musis sacer. 

Cirrha, a city at the foot of Parnassus, sacred to 
Apollo, and often taken as a general name for the 
studies of which he was the accredited Patron. 

Quid tibi cum Cyrrha, quid cum Permessidis unda, 
Romanum prop is, divitiusque Forum est. 

Nisa, a City of Arabia, on a spot near which Bacchus 
having been educated by the Nymphs, he built this 
city in gratitude : but no less than eleven cities of this 
name are said to be mentioned by different writers.— 
However, hence came one of his cognomina, Dionysius ; 
as here, Dominus Nisa. 



atire vn. 



.Learning's sole hopes on Csesar now depend. 
Of each desponding muse the generous friend ; 

V. 1 . Learning's sole hopes. The unreserved manner in 
which the character of the atrocious Domitian is exposed in 
the 4th Satire, has raised a doubt whether he be the Caesar 
here complimented : the reasons for thinking that he is are 
however not inconsiderable. First, he is known to have 
affected the patronage of letters in the beginning of his reign, 
On which account he is expressly complimented not only by 
Martial, but by Quintilian (quo nee prcesentius aliquid, nee 
studiis magis propitium numen est) ; and secondly, Paris s 
the actor, to whose approbation such important advantages 
are attributed in this Satire, llorished in the reign of Domitian. 
These considerations seem to entitle that Emperor to the com- 
pliments here given, and to piove that the 4th Satire was in 
date posterior to the present. Some give to Domitian, on the 
principle that 

' Praise undeserv'd is Satire in disguise,' 

the commendations for which it seems there is historical 
foundation. 



188 Sat. vii. Juvenal. v. 3—18. 

Their single patron in these evil days, 

When bards of prosperous fame renounce the bays, 

Heat water for the baths of Rome, or fly 5 

To paltry towns, ignoble trades to ply. 

Some urg'd by famine to contemn disgrace 

Are glad to canvass for the Crier's place ! 

For Clio's self might starve within the grove, 

In which in better times she lov'd to rove ! 10 

If in Pierian bowers unblest, unfed, 
No coin be thine, to buy thy daily bread, 
Turn Auctioneer at once, and learn to praise 
Chest, vase, and tripod with seductive phrase 
To gaping crowds : commend each ranting line 15 
Of Thebes and Tereus : laud the fustian fine 
Of Faustus, or for hungry Paccius see, 
What greater dolt will buy Alcyone ! 



V. 13. Turn Auctioneer at once. The business of an Auc- 
tioneer at Rome, as appears from this, and from a parallel 
passage in the 3d Satire, was considered as particularly de- 
grading. The articles of Roman furniture here mentioned 

Commissa quod auctio vendit 

Stantibus, 

may, I suppose, be best studied amidst the household goods of 
Herculaneum and Portici. The Thebes, Alcinoe and Tereus, 
were probably just such productions as those celebrated in 
the beginning of the 1st Satire. Thebes, and the misfortunes 
of the house of CEdipus, which had already formed the 
subject of the noblest dramas of the Greek tragedians, had 
still charms, it seems, to recommend itself to Roman poets and 
to Roman readers. Martial, (who sympathized with Juvenal 



v. 19 — 34. Sat. vii. Juvenal. 189 

E'en this were better than in Court to lie, 
And earn the wretched bread of perjury. 20 

Leave such resource for Asia's gentle knights. 
For all whom hospitable Rome requites 
With her best honors, whom she loves to greet 
Sent from Bithynia's realms with shoeless feet ! 
- None, none shall henceforth be oblig'd to bear 
Dishonest toils unmeet for Poet's care, [25 

Who gnaws the bay and meditates the song, 
Where numbers sweetly link'd the charm prolong. 
Where silver streams of gentlest cadence roll, 
And sense and sound combin'd allure the soul. 30 
Go on, for now Imperial eyes regard 
Your studious toils — -Imperial hands reward. 
Bat elsewhere dream ye yet of patronage, 
And fill the yellow parchment's ample page, 



in the abuse of so precious an article as paper,) had already de- 
precated in vain these stale subjects, Miserce ludibria charts. 

Qui legis CEdipodcm, caligantemque Thyesten, 

Colchldas, et Scyllas, quid nisi monstra legis? 
Quid tibi raptus Hylas, Sfc. 

Poor CEdipus, handled as he was by the poets of Juvenal's 
time, might have appealed to his countrymen indeed ! 

w 7r«Tgaj ®y]$f\S evoixot, Kbuttst Oidi7rou$ ods 
c$ rot xXsiv aivtyfiUT v}&) xcti xgariffTog jjy avtjp, 
FAX OXON KATAilNA AEINHX BTM&OPAX 
EAHAT6EN. 
V. 3-1. And fill the yellow Parchment's, fyc. To this 



290 Sat. vii. Juvenal. v. 35—54. 

For fuel, Thelesinus, quickly call, 35 

And to the spouse of Venus give them all ! 

Or find some hole, where thro' his favorite prey 

The noiseless worm may work his secret way. 

Yes, wretched man ! doom'd never to succeed, 

Blot all those battles out and smash thy reed, 40 

Who in that dusty loft from day to day 

Art meditating still the lofty lay, 

To future bards an image to bequeath 

Of a starv'd Poet — with an ivy wreath ! 

Hopes be there none, the paltry miser pays 45 

Not with his coin, alas ! but with his praise ; 

And (just as boys the peacock's tail admire) 

Commends the notes, but never pays the lyre ! 

While years glide on, by these fond hopes betray'd, 

Fit for the oar, the helmet, and the spade, 50 

Till grey-hair'd, starving eloquence shall see 

Its fault too late, and curse Terpsichore. 

Hear now his arts for whose applause ye pine, 
And bid farewell to Phoebus and the Nine : 



substance Persius gives the epithet bicolor. Holyday's expla- 
nation, that the hair was left on one side of the skin, seems to 
have little plausibility, and I know not what foundation. 
The ancients, it is known, were accustomed to give their MSS. 
a coat of cedar oil, to preserve it from the worm ; and some 
say that this is the origin of the expression in the text, 
1 crocece membrane, tabeilce.l But the word in question seems 
not unsuitable to the yellow tinge which parchment usually 
has, and always acquires by age, and which makes it so 
different in appearance from vellum. 



v , 55—72. Sat. vii. Juvenal. 191 

Himself turns Poet, and writes verses too, 55 

Verses, with which he pays his debt to you ; 

Which only yield to Homer's on the score 

That Homer liv'd a thousand years before ! 

Yet if all glowing for the dear delight 

You thirst for mere applause, and must recite ; 60 

Of Maculonus all the house command. 

Where like a city with the foe at hand, 

Gates strictly clos'd and all in iron bound, 

In close blockade the massive door is found ! 

He'll place in groups his menials here and there, 65 

Bid trains of clients come their parts to bear 

In boisterous plaudits, — but will he defray 

What thou must for the borrow'd benches pay, 

For seats which step by step are rais'd on high, 

And for th' orchestral chairs, a due supply ? 70 

Still we go on — still drag the sterile plough, 

And raise the furrow'd sand, where nought will 



V. 6l. Of Maculonus, fyc. We have already noticed 
the practice of recitation. This lending of one's house for 
the benefit of the reciter may be recognized in a somewhat 
similar modern arrangement (bating the illiberal part of it) 
in favor of a popular singer ; for as Holyday very faithfully 
tells us, none of the Roman patrons cared 

What the orchestra cost, rais'd for chief friends, 
And chairs re-carried when the reading ends. 
Anahathra were the ascending seats, like stairs ; subsellia s 

sipsfya, the chairs in the area ; tigillum, the supporting 

timber or scaffold. 



192 Sat. vii. Juvenal. v. 73 — 102, 

For would we quit at length th' ambitious ill, 

The noose of habit implicates us still ! 

Strong in our strength, progressive with our age, 75 

By time but more confirm'd, this fatal rage, 

This lust for writing unimpair'd remains, 

No drug removes it, and no fear restrains. 

But he, the bard, who delves no open vein, 

And holds the casual ore in proud disdain, 80 

Who with no vulgar impress stamps his gold, 

(Alas ! 'tis but in fancy I behold 

The gifted man !) with proud impatience bears 

Th' obtrusive clamor of terrestrial cares. 

Far from the haunts of men he loves to rove, 85 

And court the cherish'd stillness of the grove 1 — 

O never did the Muses welcome thee 

Within their bowers, dejected poverty ! 

That sceptre-wand in wreaths of ivy dress'd, 

By frigid hand of thine may ne'er be press'd : 90 

When Horace glows with all the poet's fire, 

And Bacchus hangs enraptur'd o'er the lyre, 

He hungers not— -else nonehad heard the strain — . 

Mute and untouch'd that sounding shell had lain ! 

Yes ! by th' immortal Muse possess'd alone, 95 

Strung to one lofty pitch, one rapturous tone, 

Led by the lords of melody and song, 

The Bard, the genuine Bard is borne along ! 

O ! 'tis the work of no contracted mind 
To dull and cold realities confm'd, 100 

Or troubled lest approaching night should spread 
No rug to warm the shivering poet's bed, 



v. 103—112. Sat. vu. Juvenal. 193 

In Fancy's brilliant colors to behold 

Celestial steeds, and cars of burnish'd gold ; 

The huge Erynnis, whose tremendous scowl 105 

AppalPd the terror-struck Rutulian's soul : 

For not a ringlet had adorn' d her head, 

Each writhing snake had hung col laps' d and dead, 

Had needy Virgil been compell'd to roam, 

In quest of casual bread — a casual home ; 110 

That Blast had never blown ! but we require 

The lofty buskin, and the ancient lyre 



V. 105. The huge Erynnis. An allusion to Virgil, most 
happily introduced. 

' Horace is full, when once he Ohe ! cries,' 

says Holyday ; when poets are poor, the poetry is, we see, in 

spite of, not in consequence of, the poverty. The ancient 

bards, as far as their history is known, had seldom occasion to 

inculpate the discernment or the generosity of contemporaries, 

Meritis minor, ant ingrafts 

Curt a fides patriae. 

Their case was seldom that of Milton, Savage, or Butler, 

' Who ask 'd for bread —and who receiv'd a stone.' 
Among the Greeks, in ' the age of letters and the arts,' 
the poet was protected by the public taste ; among the 
Romans, in the decline of both, by the affectation of indi- 
viduals. 

\ . 111. That blast had never Mown. 

Pastorale canit sigmim cornuque recurvo 

Tartaream intendit vocem, qua protinus omne 

Contremuit nemus, et silva intonuere profundce. 

Mn. 1. vii. 
Jut>> JsJ" 



194 Sat. vii. Juvenal. v. 113 — 128. 

From Him, poor starving bard ! whose Atreus sent 
His very cloak in pledge for money lent ! 
Poor Numitor ! would take delight to cheer 115 
The bard's cold garret, — but the times are dear ! 
Yet to his mistress ne'er ' the times' will plead j 
That lion's whelp 'twere cruel not to feed ; 
The bowels of the beast at smaller charge 
No doubt are fill'd ! — your Poet's paunch is large ! 
In his vast mansions Lucan may recline, [120 

And talk of Fame — far other wants are thine, 
Serranus ! — say, Saleius, what to thee 
Will glory, lean and starving glory be ? 

All Rome exulting runs to hear the lay, 125 
When Statius kindly grants the promis'd day ; 
He holds their eager minds in bondage sweet, 
While all the crowd their lov'd Thebais greet! 



V. 113. From him, poor starving bard. Of whom, by 
name Lappa, the Scholiast records that he was a poet of 
merit and in need. 

Lucan was more fortunate in the article of fame with his 
contemporaries than with posterity. Not that in the zenith 
of his reputation his pretensions were unsifted, for he lived 
with Quintilian, and is declared by that profound critic to 
be rather an orator than a poet, — a decision which posterity 
has exactly ratified. His subject is indeed highly unfortunate, 
but is often nobly treated, and may I add that Mr. Rowe's 
translation of the Pharsalia is executed in a style singularly 
appropriate to such a work, and appears to have very uncom- 
mon merit. 



v. 129— ] 36. Sat. vii. Juvenal. 195 

But let each bench and form be broken down. 
With loud applause the favor'd bard to crown, 1 SO 
He shall not cease to starve, till Paris buy- 
Agave's woes — his virgin Tragedy ! 
Paris, whose voice a sure promotion brings, 
Who decks the poet with equestrian Rings ! 
What Nobles cannot, lo, the Player can ! 1 $5 

Quit thy delusive hopes, infatuate man, 



V. 133. Paris, whose voice, SfC. The character and 
high station of this eminent person, has been already men- 
tioned in the Notes on Satire 6. That players very frequently 
became dangerous favorites in the later periods of the empire, 
is little to be wondered at : no species of talent more 
fascinating, and agreeable qualities are ever in higher demand, 
and give a far greater influence to the possessor, than the 
more solid and austere foundations of character. 

Paris, however, at last incurred the suspicion, and was put to 
death by Domitian. He is here represented as dispensing impe- 
rial favors with little judgment, granting Commissions to the 
authors of ' preelia diu vigilata,' and procuring their insertion, 
without the necessary qualifications in the roll of the Eques- 
trian order, &c. Some interpret ' Semestri auro,' as a peri- 
phrasis for the gold ring worn by the Eques ; others as a 
six months' appointment — which I do not at all understand. 
Quod non dant proceres, dahit histrio. 

To this sneer, rather at the profession of Paris than himself, 
it has been supposed that Juvenal owed his acquaintance with 
iEgypt— an harmless line indeed ! 

Antoni gladios possit contenmere, si sic 
Omnia dixisset ! 

Statius, says Juvenal, would have starved, if he bad not 



196 Sat. vii. Juvenal, v. 137 — 152. 

In Barea's halls no longer idly wait, 
Ne'er linger thou at Camerinus , gate, 
Prefects, by lucky scenes and speeches made, 
And Tribunes see, by Philomel array 'd ! 140 

Yet look not with contempt upon the bard 
Whom players patronise, and mimes reward, 
A Fabius, Cotta, Lentulus, to thee 
Will any, think' st thou, or Maecenas be ? 
The days are gone, when 'twas worth while to 
pine 145 

And thro* December's cold abstain from wine. 
Haply of better hope th' Historian's toil, 
That vast consumer both of time and oil. 
Tho' the nine hundredth page before him lies, 
Still the redundant theme yields fresh supplies ; 150 
Facts upon facts still force him to enlarge, 
And reams of costly paper swell the charge ! 



found in Paris a purchaser for his Agave.— Holyday quotes 
from Brodaeus, the price given to Terence for his Eunuchus, 
eight sestertia, about sixty-five pounds, but the authority is 
not stated. 

V. 152. And reams of costly paper. Reams, perhaps, is 
too technical. As to this article ' qua constet immortalitas 
hominum,' as Pliny expresses it, it is well known to have had 
its original and its name from the Papyrus of Egypt — the 
progressive series of substances employed for the purpose were, 
according to Pliny, 1. leaves of the palm, 2. barks of certain 
trees, 3. sheets of lead, 4. linen tablets, 5. wax, and lastly, the 
papyrus. This rush was divided and split, ' in prtetenues sed 
quatn latissimas jiluras. 



v. 153 — -164. Sat vn. Juvenal. 197 

Enough—the harvest from this well wrought field ? 
Harvest ! Far more the scribe's dull labors yield ; 
True, but they live secluded and alone, \$5 

Men should go forth, be active, and be known. — ■ 
Ask then the pleader's profits, whom attend 
Huge bags of books and papers without end, 
Gods ! How they bawl, but loudest then the cry, 
When'er they catch the client's watchful eye, 160 
Or if their side be sharply jogg'd by some, 
Who to false claims with piles of parchment come, 
Then with gigantic lies the laboring breast 
Heaves bellows-like ! — - then froth pollutes the 
vest. 



V. 156. Men should go forth, fyc. One would bepuz- 
zled in the choice of a profession, with Juvenal for an adviser: 
sour wine and pickled sprats were but poor encouragement to 
hold out to^arristers ! Notwithstanding what Athenaeus said 
,of the Grammarians ' that no occupation except phi/sic was a 
more foolish one/ si ju-tj largoi ycrav ouS'av yv i'oov ygappatiKwy 
ixwQorzfiov, this latter was the most prosperous of the faculties 
of Rome. I wonder much that its professors so completely 
(with the exception of Themison) escaped the lash of Juvenal, 
seeing from the satirical chapter of Pliny, that there was such 
an ample stock of material on a subject which has been so 
much a favorite in modern times, on such far less tenable 
ground. 

Had our poet by ill luck chosen to have entered the lists 
with the faculty, they might have said, as Martial does of his 
rough-handed Tonsor, 

Mitior implicitas Alcon secat Enterocelas. 



198 Sat. vii. Juvenal, v. 165 — 181. 

But would'st thou truly the rewards compute 1 65 

Of the laborious pleader's long pursuit, 

The profit of an hundred such compare 

With yonder Jockey's, clad in scarlet there ! — 

The Bench is seated, pallid Ajax, rise, 

With all thy eloquence the court surprise : 1 70 

Before some clodpate judge thy vitals strain, 

Relate, subjoin, correct, amend, explain, 

So shall the Palm be to the Ladder bound, 

Which leads us to the Loft where thou art found ! 

Well, but the gains ? part of a rusty chine, 1 75 

Some salted fish, or Moorish onions join 

To five small cans of sour and meagre wine ! 

Or if one piece of gold, four causes bring, 

Til' attorneys out of this their own will wring. 

But let iEmilius take the cause in hand, 1 80 

Plead e'er so ill, he gets his full demand i 

V. ISO. But let JEmilius . Human weaknesses, like human 
passions, being ever the same, and failing not to appear when 
ever and wherever their occasions arise, the ground of com- 
plaint in the text is probably far from being yet exhausted. 
JEmilio dabitur quantum licet et melius nos 
Egimus. 
The same arts must still with the vulgar produce the same 
success, and even those who can lift the veil or walk behind it, 
are not seldom willing victims of a delusion : It may be said 
of name in a profession as of wealth. 

Unde habes qucerit nemo, sed oportet habere. 
iEmilius, it seems, attracted notice by ostentation of the most 
absurd and incongruous kind. However, his brazen war-horse 
was after all more judicious than an attempt to exhibit on a 



v. 182—201. Sat. vii. Juvenal. 199 

For in his hall the brazen Car on high, 
Yok'd with four steeds abreast, attracts the eye, 
Where reining in the rampant Charger's prance, 
And poising steadily the ponderous lance, 1 85 

With eye half clos'd, and fix'd upon the foe, 
The blinking Statue meditates the blow ! 
Yet will not ostentation always pay — 
See Matho bankrupt ! Pedo runs away ! 
As soon Tongillus will, whose ponderous horn 190 
Whene'er he goes to bathe, is duly borne, 
Pest of the baths, with his tumultuous train ! — 
Whose monstrous paunch six slender Medes sus- 
tain, 
On poles which creak beneath th' enormous freight^ 
To bid for Vase, or Villa, Slaves, or plate. 195 

His costly robe from Tyre, which all may see, 
Is for the payment full security !•— 
No useless craft ! — that Purple puts a price 
On the spruce lawyer's credit and advice : 
At that fine Gown see how the vulgar stare, 200 
And scores of clients to his house repair! 

living quadruped of the species, as many a worthy Prafect, 
(intra Pomaria) could probably attest. 

Princes always ride well, says a French author; he is so 
good as to add the reason — ' because horses never flatter.' 

Martial has a facetious allusion to this rage for being repre- 
sented, not on canvas but in brass. The forges, he tells us, are 
all at work, and the smiths all alive, in fitting the lawyers t& 
their horses. 

Tarn grave percussis incudibus <sra resultant, 
Causidicum medio cum Faberaptat Eqiio, 



200 Sat vn. Juvenal, v. 202 — 221. 

t answers often well, this look of state — 
These pompous airs— this aping of the great. 

Trust we to talent ? is there any now 
Who would two hundred sesterces bestow 205 

On Tully's self ; unless indeed there shone 
A diamond ring beneath his purple zone. 
Has he eight slaves, a client fain would know, 
Ere to his counsel for advice he go — 
Do ten attendants in the van appear, 210 

And swings a splendid Litter in the rear ? 
This Paul us saw, and ?oon with vast applause, 
In an hir'd Sardonyx he pleads a cause 
Than Cossus better paid, and more admir'd 
Than Basilus— - for people soon are tir'd, 215 

And think it can't be eloquence, whene'er 
They see the speaker's garment worn and bare ! 
To Basilus shall strongest sense avail, 
Shall Basilus rehearse the matron s tale ? 
Want would'st thou 'scape, the briefless lawyer's 

curse, 220 

Gaul lies before thee— -Africa, the nurse 

V. 221. Gaul lies before thee. This is perhaps a second 
allusion to the rhetorical exercises at Lyons, meutioued in the 
first satire, on the line, 

Aut Lugdunensem Rhetor dicturus ad Aram. 

Africa had produced two or three distinguished orators 
whose names have been thought worthy of commemoration by 
Quintilian — such as Julius Africanus, and Domitius Afer. — 
But, says the Delphin editor, Africa is more entitled to be re- 
membered by us Christians as a nurse of eloquence, since we 



v. 222 — 233. Sat. vn. Juvenal. 201 

Of hopeful pleaders — thither, thither, hie, 
And 'midst her swarthy sons assiduous ply. — - 
Thoud'st teach declaiming ? Vettius, with a 
breast 
Of triple steel mayst thou be ever blest, 225 

When boy conspirators prepare the blow, 
And the large Class lays lofty tyrants low ! 
All that one blockhead has just spelt and read 
Another spouts to thy distracted head ! 
The self-same Theme, he sings it, verse for verse, 
O ! repetition is the master's curse ! [230 

The color of the action and the kind, 
Its leading points, and what may be rejoin'd , 



owe to her the names of Fertullian, Cyprian, and Augustine. 

The eloquence of the bar was at that time, one should sup- 
pose (notwithstanding the btudy of the rhetorical treatise of 
Aristotle, and the artificial divisions taught in the schools) 
rather of a desultory kind. The Causidicus of Juvenal does not 
really seem to deserve more than the ' siccus Petasunculus' 
which his client sends him. Martial has an excellent epigram 
on the eloquence of the bar, which the reader may not be 
sorry to find placed before him. 

Non de vi, neque ccede nee veneno, 

Stdlisestmihi de tribus capellis. 

Vicini queror has abesse furto : 

Hoc judex slbi postulet probari. 

Tu Carinas, Mithridaticumque bellum 

Et Perjuria Punici furoris 

JEt Syllas Mariosque Mutiosque 

Magna voce sonas, manuque tota — 

JAM DIG, POSTHUME, DE TRIBUS CAPELLIS. 



202 Sat. vn. Juvenal, v. 234 — 260. 

All fain would know j yet all dislike to pay— 
Payment ! for what ? what have you taught him, 
pray ? 235 

The fault is mine! — with me the blame must rest, 
Because forsooth your dull Arcadian's breast 
With no emotion throbs, whose drawling tone 
Full many a yawn attest, and many a groan 
With his dire Hannibal ! —what doubts occur 240 
To check the progress of the conqueror, 
Whether to march to Rome from Cannae's plain, 
Or made less confident by storms and rain, 
By some long route circuitous, retreat, 
His Cohorts drench'd, and all his Banners wet !— 
Come — name your sum, I'll not refuse to pay,[245 1 
Would but his father pass one blessed day, > 

And hear his son, my hopeful pupil, bray ! ) 

These truths a score of Rhetoricians, blest 
With such divine employment, could attest, 250 
For real litigations quit they now 
The wicked husband and the broken vow : 
Poisons and Rapes and Unguents, to give sight 
To aged blindness now no more invite — 
O he would quit that hard and thankless field 255 
If to my counsel Vettius would yield, 
And seek for bread in some far different life, 
Ere change th'unreal, for the real strife, 
All, lest he want the pittance which may buy 
The granary Token for the day's supply ! 260 

V. 260. The Granary token. 

Snmmula ne pereat qua vilis tessera venit 
Frumenti, 



v. 261 — 272. Sat. vn. Juvenal. 203 

Enquire, I pray thee, what the rich bestow 
On learn'd Chrysogonus or Pallio, 
Who to the sons of Wealth the wordy art 
Of Theodore for scanty fees impart. 
Six thousand sesterces these worthies pay 265 

For a new bath [-—throw thousands more away 
For Porticoes, where not a summer shower 
May check their wonted exercise an hour. 
Pent in their Homes should these, I pray, remain, 
'Till clouds once more disperse, 'till cease the rain ? 
When here the ample Colonnade may tire [270 
Their well kept mules, unsullied with the mire ! 

The Curatores Annonze distributed among the .poor of 
Rome small symbols or tickets of wood or of lead, which were 
an order for the receipt of so much grain. These Tesserae 
were a frequent present or largess from the Emperors. Some 
of them are preserved in the Museum at Portici. 

V. 263. Who to the sons of Wealth. Theodorus was a 
rhetorician born in Syria, who settled at Rome under Tiberius, 
and whose ' cognate maculae,' recommended him to the favor 
of that Emperor. 

Among the almost incredible luxuries of the Romans 
and their profusion in expensive buildings, their Baths and 
Porticos were the most conspicuous. The remains of several of 
the former of stupendous magnitude still attest this fact — 
Porphyry and marble were often brought from Numidia for 
this purpose. 

See that fine passage in the fourteenth satire, 

JEdificator erat Centronics. 
And Martial's 

Gellius cedificat semper SfC — 



204 Sat. vir. Juvenal, v. 273 — 286. 

Numidian columns rear the vast saloon, 

To court the radiance of the winter's Noon ; 

This prodigal expence, however great, 275 

The kitchen must maintain its proper state 

A troop of skilful cooks their means afford 

And others to arrange the costly board — 

Yet two sestertia, two at most, shall pay 

Quintilian for his long laborious day! 280 

Vain and profuse in all these objects, one 

Demands the careful parent's thrift — his Son ! 

How gain'd Quintilian then that vast estate ? 

A single case !•— Quintilian's fortunate. [285 

Of this be sure— -Wealth gives the best pretence, 

To Person, Courage, Conduct, Wit, and Sense ! 

V. 285. Of this be sure. Lucian has a passage exactly 
parallel about riches ol$ ocv wagy, -x.oi.Kovs ts avrovs xai troizovs 
xai icr^/vgovs a Trs^ya^srai, rit/.yv xeci So%a,v-o~vva. , itTUJv,Kaie% a<px- 
vouv xcci ccSo^aiv sviots ifkgifiXEirT'Qv$ kcci aoiSipovs sy (BptxYSi TiQw<ri. 
Mycillus et Gallus. 

The silver crescent on the shoe or instep, was the badge of 
the Senatorial dignity— it was rather the letter C for centum 
the number of that order. 
The passage which follows, 

Distal enim quce 
Sidera te excipiant modo primos incipientem 
Edere vagitus et adhuc a matre rubentem, 

is one of those happy passages to which it is vain to expect that 
justice can be done : — Holyday's 



v. 287— -298. Sat. vn. Juvenal. 205 

The stain of humble birth it cancels too, 

And weaves the silver Crescent on the shoe : 

Be rich, and lo ! the undisputed meed 

Of eloquence divine, to thee decreed ! 290 

Be rich — tho* hoarse catarrhs inflame thy throat, 

Sing on— »no Nightingale can match the note S 

Much it avails, what planet in the sky 
O'er-rul'd the hour of thy nativity ; 
Red from thy mother, when the feeble moan 295 
Escaped thee first, what Constellation shone ! 
To Rhetoric bred, if Fortune so decree, 
Ere long, my friend, a Consul may'st thou be ! 



' Oh there's strange difference what stars guard thy head, 
* When first thou criest and from fresh birth look'st red, 

is exactly literal and less unhappy than most of the couplets 
of that well read scholar. 

V. 297 . To rhetoric bred. On the subject of fortune (which 
is to be met with, of course, in every Poet,) Juvenal has by far 
the best common places and this is one of them. Though the 
passage in the sixth Satire, where the goddess is represented as 
smiling with complacency on exposed children, is singularly 
beautiful, this is scarcely less striking. Cicero was an instance 
(and some say Quintilian, but this is doubtful) of the ' de Rhe- 
tore Consul.' Of the ' De Coosule Rhetor/ Dionysius the 
tyrant of Syracuse afforded an example, — he taught a grammar 
school at Corinth, and was therefore an exception to the passage 
so generally true. 

Ad generum Cereris sine ccede et vulnere pauci 
Descendunt regeset sicca morte tyranni. 



206 Sat. vii. Juvenal, v. 299 — 312. 

Or change, if that Inconstant lay the train, 
The Consul's for the Teacher's robe again ! 300 
Ventidius, Tullius, what, I pray, were these, 
But for their stars, and Fate's occult decrees ? 
Who sets up slaves at will, and pulls them down, 
Fits on the Fetter, or bestows the Crown ! [305 
Fate's favorite child, what could Quintilian lack ? 
A milk-white crow, while all the rest were black. 
Much oftener does the luckless teacher's chair 
Consign the wretch that fills it to despair : 
O say, Thrasymachus, Charinas, say. 
What mercies mark'd your miserable day ? 310 
Obtain'd ye ought from Athens, save the dole, 
To drink oblivion from her hemlock bowl ? 



V. 311. Obtain' dye ought from Athens. Gelida cicuta — 
A species of the xovsiov, namely, the cicuta virosa of Linnaeus. 
The sorbitio dira cicutce is well known to have been one of 
the modes by which capital punishment was inflicted by the 
Athenians. As to the term gelida, it is not merely poetical 
and applicable to all mortal poisons indifferently, but has a 
special application to the manner in which hemlock operates — 
Semini etfoliisrefrigeratoria vis,quce si enecat,incipiunt algere 
ab extremitatibus corporis —necat sanguine spissando. Plinii 
Hist. N. 25. 

With this account agree the directions given to Socrates by 
the executioner. See the Phaedon of Plato, which may cer- 
tainly be regarded as a statement of the known effects of the 
poison, equally with an express authority on the subject. 

The subject of the vegetable poisons is much more curious 
than that of the corrosive or mineral ones— they have proper- 



v. 313—328. Sat. vn. Juvenal. 207 

Light lie the sod upon each sacred head, 
Fresh o'er your graves may scented violets spread j 
Wreaths still renew'd may pious fondness bring, 
And your urns blossom with perpetual spring ;[315 
Shades of our sires, who erst the sacred claim 
Of parent, blended with the tutor's name ! 
Achilles, grown to manhood, trembled still 
At Chiron's scourge upon his native hill ; 320 

Tho' the preceptor's tail might well provoke 
The laugh, his pupil join'd not in the joke ; 
But RufFus and the rest, distinction rare, 
Hard blows and insults from the pupils bear. 
RufFus, at Tully's Latin who would smile, 325 
Prompt to detect the rank provincial style ! 

Enceladus, Palemon, learned pair 
From toils like yours, what profits do ye share 

perties altogether peculiar to themselves, so as to be capable of 
producing their effects in small and regulated doses with the most 
infallible certainty, and have hence constituted the most 
dreadful instruments of revenge. In the interview between 
Locustaand Nero, in which they settle the death of Britanni- 
cus, the Emperor compels her by blows and menaces to pro- 
duce something of quick and certain efficacy in his presence. 
What she first prepared was tried on a kid, which died in five 
hours. She boiled the preparation longer, and it then killed 
a pig immediately, and dispatched Britannicus the moment he 
had tasted it. History of Inventions, &c. Donellen's trial. 

V. 325. Rnffus, at Tully's Latin. There is, however, a 
second interpretation of the line, 

Qui toties Ciceronem AUobroga dixit, 



208 Sat, vn. Juvenal, v. 329 — 342. 

Grammarians must compound for something 

less, 
Then e'en the toils of rhetoricians bless ; 330 
The Boy's attendant, he that pays it too, 
Abridge the iee before it comes to you ; 
Let them, Palasmon ! and submit to fate ; 
Venders of rugs, thou know'st, and cloaks, abate 
Their full demand — the whole they will not take 
Of that small pittance, for the wretched sake [335 
Of which thou sittest ere a smith would rise, 
Ere he who cards the wool, his labor plies ! 
For this content to bear the odious smell 
Of lamps, not fewer than the boys who spell ; 340 
What time to Maro's page, and Flaccus smear'd, 
The smoke and soot of morning lamps adher'd : 



and I know not whether it be not the better of the two ; viz. 
that Cicero in the affair of the Catilinarian conspiracy, on the 
suppression of which so much of his fame was built, had a 
secret understanding with the deputies of the Gauls. This 
insinuation indeed is countenanced by Sallust. 

V. 341. What time to Maros page. Horace and Virgil, 
it seems, were at the Roman schools as at our own the favorite 
Latin authors. The invisum pueris virglnibusque caput, it 
also seems, summoned his class to their occupations before 
cock-crowing. 

Nondum cristati rupere silentia galli, 
Murmur e jam scevo verberibusque tonas. 

But Homer was also read in the higher classes, of which 



v. 343 — 364. Sat. vn. Juvenal. 209 

And yet, how small soe'er, 'tis rarely paid, 
Without compulsion and the tribune's aid ! 

Unthinking parents ! ye alone impose, 345 

The bitter hardships which the tutor knows j 
Ye who expect, that all and every page, 
On every subject, should his mind engage j 
That vers'd in grammar's rules he should excel, 
And know each vapid history as well 350 

As his own fingers- — ready ev'ry day, 
When fools think fit to stop him by the way, 
(Glad to obstruct an harmless pedant's path, 
Towards the Thermal springs or Phcebus' bath) 
To tell who nurs'd Anchises ! — c I'll engage, 355 
' You'll soon adjust our wager, at what age 
c (All, Sir, appeal wiih confidence to you r ) 
' Acestes died — we were debating too, 
6 How many casks of wine the Phrygians bore 
' From the kind monarch and Sicilia's shore.' 360 

Nor this the whole, — like those whose fingers lead 
The ductile wax, we must the morals heed, 
And with a parent's ever-watchful eye, 
The gestures of the motley circle spy, 

there is evidence in many of the Greek epigrams, in one of 
which the starving teacher wishes that the wrath of Pdeus 
son had carried him off along with the Greeks. 

ovXojjLEvy); nfeviyj; y%a,^u*a.TiK£Virau.£vw, 
E<9e §s vvv Aava.oi$ ps xocrsxrocvs p>jnf exsjvij 
#£> iv^a\£7tog Aip-Of ^aaaaroc^j oXstrv. 
Juv. O 



210 Sat. vii. Juvenal, v. 365 — 366. 

Be this thy care, and when the year's complete, 365 
You'll earn the price of — one successful heat ! 



Argument* 



The folly of pride, grounded on the merits or distinctions 
of others, is a subject in reality exhausted in this inimit- 
able Satire ; and while poets have been fond of recurring 
to it in all ages, this admirable piece is the repertory from 
which they have generally drawn. Indeed a noble subject, 
once nobly treated, is left, for the most part, for ever 
incapable of improvement. There are some good lines in 
one of the Greek epigrams on the same theme, but they be- 
come feeble when viewed in comparison with the grave yet 
highly poetical discourse of Juvenal (AnoXsi ju,s to ysvog, 
py K-y e< ^jAejj sjxs, x.t.X.); Two or three excellent 
and striking remarks, given by Dusaulx from Duclos; 
are well worth extracting in further illustration. 

' The respect which we pay to birth only, is but an act 
< of mere civility — an homage to the memory of an- 
' cestors who have given lustre to the name, and which, 
i as it regards their descendants who receive it, somewhat 
' resembles the religious observance paid to images, of 



212 

' which the materials may be contemptible and the work- 
1 manship rude— it is to the feeling of piety that these 
1 forms, which would otherwise be objects of ridicule, 
' owe the whole of their respect.' — 

The comparison seems ingenious and happy ; the res- 
pect we pay to the descendant of a great name clearly 
resolves itself into association merely. 

1 Juvenal/ says Mr. Gibbon, in discussing the merits 
of this Satire, ( is distinguished from all the poets who 
' lived after the establishment of the monarchy, by his love 
' of liberty and loftiness of mind ; — all the rest sing the 
' ruin of their country ; Juvenal teaches how the evils in- 
i flicted by tyranny can be cured.' 

Spoliatis arma supersunt. 

1 The liberty of speech, conspicuous in this Satire, also 
' fixes its date. It was written under a good Prince, 
1 Nerva or Trajan ; for tyrants have the nicest sensibility, 
' and easily recognize their own portraits in those of their 
1 predecessors : Domitian would have quickly concluded 
* that an enemy to Nero could be no friend of his.' 

See further on this subject, Aristot. Rhetoric. Chap, 
xvii. B. c 2. 



213 



PERSONS AND PLACES 

MENTIONED IN THE SATIRE. 



PERSONS. 

PONTICUS, with whom the poet expostulates, is asi 
unknown character : of the Mmiliani, Curii, Corvini, 
Lepidi, Numantini, and many others cited, it would be 
irrelevant to say more, than that they were families of 
the most acknowledged excellence, in possession, while 
they lived, of the full respect of their contempora- 
ries, and retaining their honors in the estimation of 
posterity. 

Osiris, the Egyptian Deity, worshipped under the form 
of an ox, which obtained the name of Apis. The 
Egyptians, however, from some theory which does not 
appear, used to drown the representative of their God 
after a certain number of years, and look out for 
another, whose discovery was announced by the cry, 



214 

Cecrops. It is almost needless to put down that he was the 
founder and the first King of Athens. 

Nepos, a miller whose name frequently occurs in Martial. 

Phalaris, the celebrated owner of a brazen bull, which, 
like the Trojan horse, had a hollow carcase, iuto which 
this respectable king of Agrigentum used to put any 
persons to whom he had proposed questions of difficult 
solution, and whose responses were obtained by lighting 
a fire just under the spot where they were placed. 

Cosmns, either a person who was very extravagant in the 
use of perfumes, or a celebrated perfumer in Rome : 
his name in the latter sense occurs frequently in Mar- 
tial. 

Pansa, and Natta, have the good fortune to be unknown : 
they were, it seems, adepts in the arts of larceny and 
house-breaking. 

_ Myro, a celebrated artist, chiefly known from his cow, 
which is thus made to express his merit, in the Greek 
epigram, 

BovxoXs, 7T0* 7rpoQssiv /xe /3»a£saj ; Kr^eo vutrcrMV 
ov yaq ju,oj re^vrj xcu toS' eSw>c=v sp^sjv. 

Phidias. — Who knows not that the ivory statue of Mi- 
nerva in the Parthenon, as well as the exquisite sculpture 
which adorned the front of that superb edifice, were 
among the works of this celebrated artist ? 

Mentor, an artist of uncommon skill in the engraving or 
sculpture of cups — mentioned again in Satire xv. 

■ Stantem extra pocula cuprum. 

Sat. i. 76. 



215 

Dolabella, two of the name ; both prosecuted for cor- 
ruption and peculation. Cn. Corn. Dolabella, Procon- 
sul of Macedonia, A. U. 672, who had Julius Ca?sar 
for his accuser, Cotta and Hortensius for his advocates ; 
Cn. Dolabella, Proconsul of Cilicia, impeached by 
M. Scaurus, and found guilty. 

C. Anionius, son of M. Antonius, expelled the Senate 
for the same infirmity as that which troubled the pre- 
ceding Proconsuls, but restored by interest, and chosen 
as the colleague of Cicero in the Consulship. 

Marias, the same celebrated in Satire 1, ' qui fruitur 

Dis iratis.' 
Damasippus, probably a feigned name, Aapao-nnro; : but 

it was also the cognomen of the Licinian family. 

Catullus, not the distinguished poet of that name, but a 
mimographus, or farce writer. 

Laureolus, it was this person's part in the Drama to be 
crucified : Domitian, having ordered the play, directed 
for the sake of effect, that this part of the performance 
should be real — meaning, without doubt, to illustrate 
Aristotle — Si' sXbo; kou fofiov, fyc. 

Corinthus, an unknown, indifferent actor. 

Gracchus, See Satire 2. 

Verginius, the Roman General in Lower Germany ; 
Julius Vindex, in Gaul ; Serg. Galba, in Spain : all 
three revolted and conspired against Nero. 



216 



PLACES. 



Eiiganea, a district of ancient Italy, which should seem 
to correspond with Piedmont, or the confines of the 
Venetian territory, — though this is disputed. 

Jdumea Porta, a port or town of Idumaea, from which 
spices and perfumery were shipped ior Rome, — or, as 
some say, agate of Rome, erected by Titus in honor 
of his Jewish victories. 



satire viii 



And what is birth ? avails it ought to show 
Of sires in marble rang'd the stately row, 
iEmilian chiefs in sculptur'd cars sublime, 
The Curii mouldering and defae'd by time, 
Corvinus blacken'd o'er with smoke and dust, .5 
Or Galba's noseless, mutilated bust. ? — - 
Why on the Lineal page so fond to trace 
The noble founders of thy ancient race, 
Or vaunt in terms that tell thy Mind's disease, 
Those, Masters of the Horse — -Dictators, these, 10 
If thou, of imag'd Sires the worthless Son, 
Thro' all th' extremes of crime and folly run ? 
Wherefore these files of marshall'd statues, say, 
If thy pale vigils be consum'd at play, 
Uncheck'd by Scipio's interdicting frown, 15 

And all the chiefs that look indignant down ? 
Strange to thy couch, till rise that morning Star 
That saw their Camps in motion for the war ! 



218 Sat. vin. Juvenal. v. 19—26. 

Shall Fabius lord it o'er the lords of Rome, 
His the great altar ! — his th' Herculean dome ! — 20 
If, soft as lambs on fair Euganea's plain, 
Made sleek with pumice, covetous and vain ; 
Eager to gain the earliest advice 
Of each new poison's properties and price, 
*Midst those dishonor' d forms he plant his own, 25 
Soon to the earth with insult to be thrown ? 



V. I9. Shall Fabius lord it, <Sfc. The ara maxima was 
erected in honor of Hercules, in the forum boarium, or beast 
market : its rites constantly devolved on the Fabian family, 
who claimed their descent from the Nero to whom it was 
dedicated. — ' Hoc debemus virtutibus (they are the words of 
Tacitus,) ut 11011 prcesentes solum Mas, sed etiam ablatas e 
conspectu colamus' — This altar is mentioned by Virgil— 
Qnce maxima semper 
Dicetur nobis et erit quee maxima semper. 

V. 23. Made sleek ivith pumice. This volcanic stone 
was employed by the ancients as a depilatory ; it abounded in 
the district of Catana, whose inhabitants were constantly 
supplied with plenty of it by their ( ill neighbour JEtna.' 
Its mention here and in other places, (Satire 2 and 9>) implies 
much more than a charge of mere effeminacy. 

V. 26. Soon to the earth. Statues were with the ancients 
all, and more than portraits with the moderns, placed in their 
halls, and carried in public processions : They were all which 
those ages knew of ' the boast of Heraldry/ On these repre- 
sentations of the unworthy, the public fury often vented itself, 
and Rome, before Britain, had its Iconoclasts. 

Here, says Holiday, may be remembered that of Tacitus, 
Annal. 2, " Tunc Cotta Messalinus, ne imago Libonis exe- 



v. 27 — 48. Sat. viii. Juvenal. 219 

The want of worth no Marbles can supply. 
Virtue alone is true nobility. 
Paulus, or Drusus, in thy morals then 
Make haste to rival ; imitate the men 30 

Whose names ye boast— and let the generous deed 
Which stamps thy worth, thy Lictor's rods precede. 
Claim we one debt from the illustrious few, 
That grac'd by birth, they shine in merit too — 
Of pristine Faith the noble fame deserve, 35 

Ne'er from the paths of truth, of honor swerve 
In Word, in Act — now, now indeed I see 
Thy race illustrious stand confess'd in thee, 
Getulicus, Silanus, whatsoe'er 
Thy name, egregious citizen and rare ! 40 

As for a new Osiris, let the sound 
Through all our streets be heard, * he's found, 
he's found.' 
Noble shall he be deem'd on whom a name 
Confers its frail and solitary claim ; 
And who does nothing— nor intends to do 45 

Worthy the lineage he delights to view ? 
Yes — when we call some dwarf an Atlas, tell 
How ^Ethiopia's babes the swans excel, 

quias posterorum comitaretur, censuit" — it is spoken of Libo, 
who slew himself on an accusation of treason by Tiberius. 

Here, I would add, may also be recorded that memorable 
expression of the same historian, on the exclusion of the 
statues of Brutus and Cassius from a public procession, 
" Prcefulgebant Bruti et Cassii imagines, eo ipso quod non 
visebantotr ." 



220 Sat. vni. Juvenal. v. 49—78. 

On warp'd and stunted nymphs when men confer 
Europa's name, or for the mangy cur SO 

That crawls half-starv'd in quest of casual spoil, 
And licks from lamps extinct the fetid oil, 
Take from amidst the savage tribes, a name 
To mark the mongrel with conspicuous shame. 
Beware lest thus, O Creticus, you hear 55 

Your name distinguish'd with emphatic sneer ! 

For whom these words of counsel you demand. 
For thee, O Plancus ! let the warning stand, 
For thee, vain-glorious of thy Drusian name, 
As if thyself had earn'd a wreath from fame ! 60 
Proud of the noble blood which in thee flows, 
The Julian mother who that blood bestows, 
No spurious babe of her that knits for bread, 
Hous'd for the night in yon wind-shaken shed ; 
' Hence, abject rabble !— vile Plebeians, go ! — 65 

* What country claims ye, or what parents know ? 

* I sprung from Cecrops !' — all the joy be thine, 
The honors all of that illustrious line ! 

Yet 'midst the herd, the object of thy scorn, 

Be some, whom sense and eloquence adorn, 70 

Who help the well-born dolt in many a strait 

And plead the cause of the unletter'd Great : 

Clad in Plebeian gowns there oft arise 

Who solve of law th' abstrusest subtleties : 

This valiant youth, fiYd with a soldier's pride, 15 

Intent on glory, seeks Euphrates' side ; 

Whilst that, his country's distant eagles gains, 

Which hold in custody Batavia's plains, 



v . 79—92. Sat. vni. Juvenal. 221 

Whilst thou, to virtuous ardor all supine, 

Art boasting still of thy ' Cecropian line/ 80 

Yon head of Hermes, which on stones they hew, 

For aught appears, in worth quite equals you ; 

Or if inferior, 'tis in this alone, 

That life and action are denied to stone. 

Say, child of Teucer ! — do we e'er impute 85 

A generous breed, save to a generous brute, 

Is it not thus we praise th' impatient steed, 

Whose easy triumph and transcendent speed, 

Palm after palm proclaim — while Victory 

In the hoarse Circus stands exulting by ! 90 

His be the wreath, whatever pastures fed, 

Whatever meads obscure the courser bred, 



V. 8l. Yon head of Hermes, This is mentioned rather 
than any other block, from its greater frequency of occur- 
rence: for it was set up in the public ways, and at the doors 
of private houses. These Mercuries performed their tutelary 
functions at Athens as well as at Rome, and one of the first 
occasions of the disgrace of Alcibiades, arose from his being 
accused of defacing them in company with other young n\en s 
who seem to have practically anticipated the line of Juvenal, 
'Cujus ad Effigiem, Sfc' This frolic (/xera vaidias xai oivou) was 
taken up as a very serious matter, and had nearly lost him his 
share in the conduct of the Sicilian expedition : by which in- 
deed in the sequel he would have held himself a gainer, oaroi 
' EPMAI rja-ccv XiQivoi ev ft] itoXsi ft] Aftrjvaiouv (sim §s xafa to 
sttix^iov, 7j TETPArXlNOS EPrASIA, ntoXXoi h bv iSiois 
7T£>e9ufo<; xai ev Isgois) pia vvx.fi oi itXsurroi iregisxQiryo-av ra 
irgoo-urta,. Thucy. vi. 28, 29. They were therefore Tetra- 
gonal stone pillars or Terms, with an head carved on the top. 



222 Sat. vin. Juvenal, v. 93 — 112. 

Whom clouds of dust which on the margin rise 
Of the wide plain, speak foremost for the 

prize ! 
Meanwhile Coritha's undisputed race, 95 

Their dam's fair fame protects not from disgrace, 
If no hereditary worth be found, 
And the dull yoke with not a prize be crown'd. 
For here, no ancestry contempt can stay, 
To the sire's shade here men no honors pay — 100 
Consign'd to frequent sale without remorse, 
However bred, behold the vanquish'd horse : 
Doom'd for some paltry price new lords to gain, 
And with gall'd neck, to lug the ponderous wain, 
The slow of foot is to the collar bound, 105 

And turns for life the mill of Nepos round ! 
Present us then — for not thy sires alone 
Can make thee honor* d — merits of thine own, 
Which with the titles that we gave and give, 
May on the sculptur'd stone united live. 110 

Enough for him, to Nero's race allied, 
And fill'd as fame relates with empty pride 

V. 111. Enough for him, Sfc. Rubellius Plautus was, 
by the mother's side, says Tacitus, as nearly related as Nero to 
Augustus. This was too near for the safety or repose of the 
Emperor, who therefore sent him a letter, to desire " that he 
would withdraw from the Defamatory remarks of the multi- 
tude, and take up his abode on the possessions of his ancestors 
in Asia Minor, where his youth might be passed without alarm 
or hazard," — he took the hint, and very wisely withdrew 
thither with his wife Antistia. 



v. 113 — 132. Sat. viii. Juvenal. 223 

From that illustrious birth — for small pretence 
May that same station claim to vulgar sense — 
But, Ponticus, the meed of solid worth, 115 

I wish for thee, which all the claims of birth 
Can ne'er confer ; I wish to see thee shine 
By self-earn' d praise- — by merits truly thine ! 
O ! 'tis for creatures spiritless and tame 
To lean incumbent on another's Fame, 120 

For but remove the Columns of thy trust, 
Lo, all thy honors prostrate in the dust — • 
The widow'd Vine, strew'd helpless on the ground, 
Mourns the supporting Elm to which 'twas bound. 
A valiant Soldier in thy country's cause, 125 

Protect her soil — be mindful of her laws ; 
Th' uncertain or ambiguous call'd to prove, 
Judge ! Guardian ! Witness ! O let nothing move 
Thy vsoul to crime — tho' Phalaris command, 
Point to his bull, and raise the threatening hand, 130 
Deem it consummate guilt one day to gain, 
If violated truth that day obtain ; 



V. 113. For small pretence. The meaning of sensus com- 
munis in this passage is disputed ; I think our colloquial ex- 
pression renders it properly, and that it is here imputed to 
high rank as a want of common understanding to be over fond 
of any distinctions which were acquired by no merits of its 
own ; — the ordinary sense of mankind being certainly in oppo- 
sition to this feeling, so universal among those who possess 
the smallest pretensions for the indulgence of it. 



224 Sat. vin. Juvenal, v. 138 — 148. 

Thy peace for mere existence ne'er betray, 

Nor basely barter life's great end away! 

Hold thou in virtuous estimation dead 1 35 

That man who lives from honest perils fled, 
Tho' Cosraus every scented bath prepare, 
Tho' Lucrine's rocks supply his sumptuous fare ! 

Lies the rich province prostrate at thy feet, 
Her long-expecting Lord prepar'd to greet? 140 
The steady rein o'er every passion hold, 
Be strange to wrath, be strange to lust of gold ! 
There, spoil'd allies upon thy sight shall press, 
The moisture drain'd, the bones all marrowless, 
Of vassal princes, — Oh ! respect thy trust, 1 45 

Think what sweet recompence awaits the just ! 
Think how Rome's vengeance, in her Senate's vote, 
The guilty Capito and Tutor smote, 



V. 134. Nor basely barter, fyc. For even the philosophers 
of antiquity held, that man was brought into existence for 
the purpose of exercising the higher capacities of his nature, 
— his moral faculties. To sacrifice these his greatest and best 
distinctions, was therefore, vivendi perdere causes, to relin- 
quish the main distinctions of that higher part of the creation 
which Cicero terms * ad honestatcm natum.' 

V. 14S. The guilty Capito and Tutor. The first of these 
Persons was brought to public justice by Paetus Thrasea, the 
illustrious Roman whose end has been noticed before. He 
was the scn-iu law of the infamous Tigellinus, and was sent 
by his interest as Proconsul to Cilicia. — Plunder, prosecution, 
and punishment, succeeded in their turn. It is not without 
reason that he and his confederate were called piratce Cilicum. 



v. 149 — 160. Sat. vin. Juvenal. 225 

And how the Pirates qfCilicia far'd 

For all the shameful pillage they had shar'd. 150 

But wherefore ? — since our friends are soon bereft 

By Pansa's hands of all that Natta left. 

Thy rags sold off, Chserippus, keep at home, 

And spare the labor of a trip to Rome ! 

Less loud the groans and less acute the wound, 
When copious spoils the recent victor found, [155 
The Spartan chlamys and the shell of Cos 
Fill'd every house — and gold was held for dross. 
Parrhasius here display'd his art divine, 
And matchless forms, attested, Myro, thine ! 160 



We may remark here, that piracy, properly so called, was 
among the earliest species of depredation. The danger of 
the element was nothing, when compared with the facility it 
gave for getting clear off with the booty (spoils which are 
?u/3ao-T«5cra being set down by Aristotle as most desirable to 
thieves,) ; and it is not doubtful that these daring adventurers, 
stimulated as they were by the love of gain, were among the 
earliest improvers of nautical skill, and the leaders of maritime 
enterprize. The islands of the Archipelago were in the 
early periods of Greciau History subject to perpetual incur- 
sions from this universal enemy, till Theseus suppressed them ; 
Thucydides, indeed, gives this circumstance as a principal 
cause of the little permanency of the early settlements in 
Greece. Piracy therefore may be reasonably supposed to 
have led as much as Commerce to that 9aAac<nj£ k% aro;, which 
afterwards constituted one of the leading distinctions of the 
Athenian commonwealth. 

Juv. P 



'226 Sat. vtn. Juvenal., v. 161 — 164. 

Here breathing ivory the gaze would meet, 
The work of Phidias or of Polyclete * 
The Goblet wrought by meaner hands was rare. 
And Mentor's skill conspicuous every-where ! 

V. 16*1. Here breathing ivory. — Phidiacum vivebat ebur, 
I do not know whether any remains of sculpture wrought in 
this material (nuda et Candida signa) be still in existence. 

Have the commentators clone justice to the taste of Juvenal, 
which is every-where conspicuous when the remains of anti- 
quity fall in his way ? — See that fine passage Sat. xi. 101, 
where he describes, evidently with the horror of an anti* 
quaiian, the Roman Soldier, 

Tunc rudis, et Graias mirari nescius artes, 
breaking to pieces the beautifully sculptured cup, which he 
found amidst the spoil of plundered cities, to ornament his 
horse ! 

Of the perfection of this first of arts, among the Greeks, 
what an evidence is supplied in that most beautiful passage in 
the Hecuba, where Talthibius describes the sacrifice of Polyx- 
ena !— The torn Peplum exposes a form (the poet tells us), 
6 as beautiful — AS A statue.' 

spf>?)%£ Xar/wos m ixto-ov, rftzf CjW^aAox, 

pxerrouj r' eSeifa <r?a§va 9" 'X2S ATAAMAT02 

KAAA12TA. 
V. l6"3. The goblet wrought by, S?c. Mentor was an 
engraver of great eminence: Pliny relates of Crassus, that 
he purchased two cups figured by this celebrated artist for aa 
hundred sestertia ; and an epigram of Martial records, that 
the reptiles he had worked upon the cup looked so lively that 
people were afraid to handle them. 

Behold the reptile on the goblet lives! 

Falters th' extended hand — the mind misgives. 



v. 165 — 182. Sat. viii. Juvenal. 227 

Fresh for the spoil, see Dolabella fly, 1 65 

He took not all— we sent them Antony ; 

From his hard grasp a remnant of the theft 

Was still for sacrilegious Verres left. 

On lofty ships the pilfer'd spoils were borne, 

Trophies from unresisting nations torn, 170 

Triumphs of Peace ! — now more rapacious hands 

Drive the last yoke of oxen from the lands ; 

Not e'en the father of the herd they spare, 

Nor leave the ruin'd farm a single mare ! 

Or if some sorry household God there be, 175 

Of the small hut the single deity, 

Discerns it soon the microscopic eye, 

For mean and humble spoils which loves to pry. 

Unwarlike Rhodes perhaps thou mayst despise, 
And scented Corinth hold an easy prize ; 1 80 

That feeble race 'tis easy to contemn, 
Those resin'd limbs ! one fears no harm from them— - 

V. 171. Triumphs of Peace. Occulta spolia et plures 
de pace triumphos ! What a line to meet the eyes of anv 
plunderer ! but such have neither heads to comprehend nor 
hearts to be disturbed. This picture is one of the most highly 
colored in Juvenal ; it displays his whole strength, and every 
word embodies a distinct and impressive meaning. 

V. 1S2. Those resin'd limbs, Sfc. Pliny, after mentioning 
the various species of adhesive resins, concludes (in relation 
to this practice) ' pudet confiteri maximum jam honorem ejus 
in evellendis ab virorum corporibus pills !' He also says (which 
I mention for the benerjt of chemists,) ' Resina omnis oleo 
dissolvitur aut creta ; ' 

What dares their gumm'd youth enterprise like war? 

Holyday. 



228 Sat. vin. Juvenal. v. 183 — 200, 

But the rough Spaniard, and the Gallic car, 

And bold Illyria's sons — of these beware ! 

Touch not those hardy Reapers who supply 1 85 

The wants of Rome's exhausted granary ; 

Of Rome, whom fears of famine ne'er distress, 

While thronging myriads to her Circus press. 

Yet more, what objects worthy of the crime 

Can tempt thee now in Afric's torrid clime ? 1 90 

For was not Marius, worthy Marius, there, 

Who took their very Zones, and left them bare ! 

Be it thy care no grievous wrong to do, 

To nations valiant and despondent too ! [1 95 

True ! thou mayst take their silver and their gold — 

The Sword, remember, and the Spear they hold, 

The spoil'd have arms, and thou shalt 

quickly find, 
Take what thou may'st, that these were 

left behind. 
Nor deem the sentence mine — I read thee here 
A solemn truth, as Sybil's page sincere ! 200 



V. 185. Touch not those hardy reapers. He alludes to, and 
presently after mentions, the Africans ; for Africa had long 
been the granary of Rome. The lands of ancient Italy were 
chiefly employed in pasturage, or in the culture of the vine 
and the olive. Grain they usually imported — hence frumenti 
dominus of the merchant in the 14th Satire. The Marius 
whose name pres; f ly occurs was mentioned with due ap- 
plause in the 1st Satire—' tenues discinxerit Afros' is an 
expression to which it is impossible to do justice. 



v. 201 — 223. Sat. vm. Juvenal. 229 

If of companions pure a chosen band, 
Assembled in thy halls around thee stand, 
If thy tribunal's favors ne'er were sold 
By slaves and catamites for damning gold — 
If thy chaste spouse, from stain of avarice free, 205 
Mark not her progress by rapacity ; 
Nor meditate with harpy claws to spring 
On all the bribes which towns and cities bring ; 
Then, thy descent from Picus proudly trace, "} 
Take for thy ancestors the Titan race, 210 V 

And at the head of all, Prometheus place ; 3 

And be it still thy privilege to claim 
From any book thou would'st, whatever Name : 
But, if Corruption drag thee in her train, 
If blood of Rome's allies for ever stain 215 

Thy lictor's broken scourge, or if the sight 
Of the dull axe, and wearied arm delight, 
Then shall each Sire's refulgent honors shed 
A torch-like splendor round thy guilty head. 
For not a vice but takes a darker hue, 220 

Whene'er high station holds it up to view. 
Yes ! if forg'd deeds thy hands for ever sign, 
If all the temples teem with frauds of thine, 



V. 223. If all the temples. It was usual, says Holydav, 
(from Brittanicus) 1o dispatch the sealing of men's last wills 
in the temples. It was done in the morning and fasting, 
as was afterwards ordered in the Canon Law. I quote again 
from Holyday, ' Qui in Sanctis andet jurare, hcec jejnnus 
facial cum omni honest ate et timore Dei.' 



230 Sat. vin. Juvenal. v. 224 — 239. 

If Night, and the Santonic hood disguise 

Thy form from some adulterous enterprize, 225 

What are to me the honors of thy race, 

Which these eternal villainies disgrace ? 

Swift by the tombs behold his axle fly, 
Where the whole race of Damasippus lie, 
The drag-chain see the consul's hand prepare, 230 
To lock the wheel and check the rapid car. 
'Twas night — yet did yon moon the sight disclose, 
And every glittering planet as it rose !— 
Wait till the Consul's robe no more restrains, 
At noon will Damasippus grasp the reins 235 

And crack the whip, — then should some ancient 

friend 
Athwart his way unwilling footsteps bend, 
No weak confusion shall his looks betray, 
With nod familiar he'll unbind the hay, 



V. 228. Swift hi/ the Tombs. The Satirist now intermits 
the general design of the Satire, for the sake of introducing 
somewhat abruptly a particular example. Under the feigned 
name of Damasippus, he describes, without doubt, the mis- 
conduct and infamous practices of some well-known character, 
on whom the considerations of high birth and high station 
wrought not even to economize his vices — every thing shows 
a particular character, as the epithet pinguis, a personal dis- 
tinction, is enough to prove. ' Damasippus was sick/ says 
Holyday, ' of that disease which the Spartans called mTTOTooc* yj, 
or horse- feeding, which they used for a curse, accounting a 
man sufficiently plagued that was infected with that humor, 
it being a chargeable and sure confusion ! 



v. 240—253. Sat. mil. Juvenal. 231 

Fling off the trace, expertly loose the rein, 240 

And to his hungry cattle pour the grain. 

His sheep or ox if Damasippus bring 

To pay great Jove the wonted offering 

As Numa bade, — on Epona he calls, 

Whose painted face adorns the reeking stalls. 245 

Next, if the tavern's vigils he resume, 

The Syrophcenix, laden with perfume, 

Runs from Idumae's gate, and soothes his pride 

With Lord, and King, and twenty names beside. 

While Cyane with vase replenish'd waits, 250 

And all the hero's wants anticipates ! 

Some kind apologist perhaps will say, 
6 Ourselves did thus,' — and ' youth will have its 
day'— 



V. 249. With Lord and King, fyc. 

Cum le non nossem Dominum Regemque vdcaoam, 
Cum bene te novi, jam mihi jiriscus eris. 

Mart. 
These seem to have been colloquial terms of respect, which 
were applied by common persons to such as they knew not, 
just like the * Aonor* of our own days. Damasippus is said 
in the original, to repair 

— ad illos 

Thermarum caliccs, inscriptaque lintea. 

By the last of these terms we learn that the signs suspended 
at the taverns or baths of Rome were wrought on a sort of 
flag or napkin, perhaps for the purpose of being suspended 
on a pole projecting from the wall, so as to be seen at a 
greater distance. Similar to this is the Megalesiaca Mappa, 
Satire x'i. 



232 Sat. viii. Juvenal, v. 254 — 275. 

Yes, but inform'd by riper years ye ceas'd, [255 

Short be the season of our sins at least. 

With our first beard should some be shorn away — 

But what excuse for Damasippus, say, 

Who revels thus when all a soldier's cares 

Are claim' d and busied in his country's wars ? 

Of years the veteran's toils to undergo, 260 

To seek the camp where Syria's rivers flow, 

Or on the banks of Danube or of Rhine 

The guardian squadrons of his Prince to join ! — 

Haste, send to Ostia, Caesar, — quickly send, 

Next bid thy messenger his footsteps bend 265 

To yon foul Cells, — thy captain shall he find 

'Midst sailors, thieves, and fugitives reclin'd : 

Assassins, hangmen, funeral-jobbers, all 

Assemble here, and hold their common Hall. 

Here all are equals, here no second bed, 270 

No second table more remote is spread, 

Each calls on each familiarly, and none 

The much employ'd, the common goblet shun !— 

To Tuscan fetters wouldst thou not dismiss 

A slave so base, O Ponticus, as this ? 275 



V. 264. Haste, send to Ostia, Ctesar, The sense seems to 
be, ' send off to secure the mouth of the Tiber as the first step 
of importance on a sudden invasion: next look for your 
General, &c/ The Galli, who form a part of the society in 
which he is found, were Priests of Cybele. They are men- 
tioned more particularly in the 6th Satire. — I had not room 
for them in the goodly company of the translation. 



v. 276—295. Sat. vm. Juvenal. 233 

But if your own, alas ! the vilest deed 

For pardon too successfully will plead 

Great sons of Troy, and what would tinge with shame 

A sordid cooler's cheek, ye feebly blame ! 

Are these extreme examples ? what, I pray, 280 
If more remain, more foul, more vile than they ? 
Yes, Damasippus, all the world shall know, 
Who roar'd so well, the Roscius of the show! 
Who, in the sorry farce, perform' d the clown, 
Delighting half the rabble of the town. 285 

c Why spare of Lentulus the tale to tell, 
* Who play'd Laureolus — and play'd it well ? ' 
He did, and if the cause by me were tried, 
Deserv'd in earnest — to be crucified. 
Yet deem not we the people void of blame — • 290 
Hard is the forehead, and inur'd to shame, 
Of such as can endure to sit, and see 
Their nobles humbled by buffoonery ! 
Their Fabii tread the boards with naked feet, 
And grin at cuffs which the Mamerci meet ! 295 



V. 289. Deserv'd in earnest. The old scholiast says, but 
probably he guesses, (as we might do from the passage) that 
the actor, whose part Lentulus sustained, was crucified on 
the stage : if so, a great violation already of the precept, dicta- 
ted by nature, and announced by Horace : 

Ne coram populo, fyc. 
Martial has an epigram, from which we learn, that at least 
on one occasion, an actual crucifixion, attended with circum- 
stances of particular horror, was exhibited on the arena ! 



234 Sat. viii. Juvenal, v. 296 — 308, 

How high the price, it boots not to enquire ; 
Some at the games expose their lives for hire ! 
And tho' no Nero urges to the fight, 
Will earn a Praetor's wages for the night I 
Place here the tyrant's sword, and there the scene ; 300 
Gods ! can a Roman hesitate between ? 
Lives there a man so much afraid to die, -v 
That he with Thymele will deign to vie, C 
Or to outshine the dull Corinthus try ? ) 
Yet wherefore should we deem it strange, for say 305 
When Princes harp, why may not nobles play? 

Can Rome's humiliations farther go ? 
Hear her disgraces at the public show — 



V. 300. Yet with the Tyrant's sword. The gladiatorial 
combats, are meant, says the scholiast ; which, though humili. 
ating, were honorable compared to the exhibitions of the 
stage : as if the danger to which the individual was exposed, 
would, by enabling him to acquire a character for courage, 
cancel some of the ignominy. But I should agree with Du- 
saulx, that the opposition intended is not of the arena and the 
stage, (for every where Juvenal execrates both) but rather that 
it is demanded, whether a compulsory humiliation on the 
stage be not a greater evil to a generous mind, than the 
death which would be inflicted on refusal ? In this sense I 
have rendered the passage. 

V. 307. Can Rome's humiliations, Sfc. Every body may 
not recollect the habit of the Roman arena : I will, therefore, 
copy what has been so often copied. The Mirmillo, called 
also Secutor, was armed like a soldier, with a sword, a shield, 
and a helmet ; the Retiarius had a net and a trident or three 



v. 309 — 322. Sat. viii. Juvenal. 235 

See Gracchus, void of falchion and of shield, 
And void of helmet too, his trident wield. 310 
The decent arms which the Mirmillo wears, 
He scorns, he hates, his face he boldly bares ; 
And see, the balanc'd net in vain is thrown, 
He flies — Ye Gods ! to all th' Arena known ! 
Yes ! we may trust the tunic and the gold, 315 
Which from the bonnet falls, in waving fold — 
Wound more severe than keenest falchion's blow, 
Felt the Secutor match'd with such a foe ! 

Like virtuous Seneca who would not die, 
Rather than live with Nero's infamy ? 320 

Whose guilt deserv'd, were amplest justice done, 
More Serpents and more Sacks and Apes — than one. 



pointed spear : it was his business to implicate in his net the 
head of his adversary. The least soldier-like part pleased 
Gracchus best ; — but after all, no person can now enter into the 
feeliug which makes the foundation of the Satire in this pas- 
sage ; it has perished, of course, with the occasion. Part of 
it arose, we see, from the greater exposure of the face, on the 
part of the Retiarius, who wore no helmet : ■ Nee galea 
front em abscondit ! tota fugit agnoscendus arena — 

V. 318. Felt the Secutor. That is, says the scholiast, 
because he was restrained from reprisals on a man of such 
rank. In ordinary cases, he might have acquired fame by 
killing his adversary ; here he dared not; in short, Gracchus 
had merely to display his own skill, and the other to be the 
object of it. In the succeeding lines he makes a transition to 
Nero, whose crimes and follies are denounced with an unspa- 
ring hand. In illustration of all the accusations which follow 
the life of Nero must be consulted. History too well warrants 
the whole to be authentic. 



236 Sat. viii. Juvenal. v. 323 — 344. 

'Tis true, Orestes wrought the same offence, 

But motives, motives make the difference. 

T' avenge his sire slain at the social board, 325 

And warn'd by Gods, Orestes rais'd his sword j 

Electra's blood ne'er crimson'd o'er his blade, 

Nor was his Spartan spouse to death betray' d. 

Say, did Orestes e'er his friends invite 

To pledge their host — in bowls of aconite ? 330 

Ne'er were his warblings heard upon the stage, 

No paltry Troics did his pen engage ; — 

Of all the crimes that stain'd that reign ahhorr'd, 

None, none more justly earn'd th' avenging sword 

Of Galba, Vindex, and Verginius — none 335 

More duly earn'd that fate he could not shun : — 

O Rome, thy Prince's vile ambition hear ! 

Enough for him to charm the rabble's ear ; 

To sing on foreign boards for new renown, 

If he but win from Greece her parsley crown ! 340 

Go, round thy sires suspend the frequent prize, 

The wonders of thy voice to signalize ; 

And let Thyestes' robe, which sweeps the ground, 

Be, with the mask of Menalippe, bound 



V. 339. To sing on foreign boards. The stage was infa- 
mous to all, particularly so to persons of rank ; but Nero 
even went ' peregrina dd pulpita' in search of more exten- 
sive admiration. It was surely a phenomenon in morals, 
that Vanity should have maintained so much ascendancy in 
such an atrocious character. 



v. 345 — 370. Sat. vin. Juvenal. 237 

To great Domitius' feet, and hang on high 345 
The harp so dear to thee and minstrelsy. 
Say, Catiline, Cethegus, who than ye, 
In birth more honor' d and in ancestry ; 
Than ye, whose dastard spirits could conspire 
To wrap our dwellings and our fanes' in fire, 350 
And 'midst the horrid din of midnight arms 
To fill our streets with murders and alarms, 
As tho' the offspring of the Gauls had come 
To yell in triumph 'midst the flames of Rome ! 
Well ye deserv'd the tunic and the stake, 355 

But Rome was safe— her Consul was awake ; 
A nameless stranger of Arpinum's soil, 
Made haste the villain Nobles' schemes to foil ; 
With rapid step, no precious instant lost, 
He plants the guard at each suspected post, 360 
Soldiers, in arms, th' astonishM traitor met 
Where'er he turn'd — found all his paths beset! 
And thus, within the walls, the civic gown 
Reap'd a more glorious harvest of renown, 
Than did thy sword, Octavius ! in the field 365 
Of Thessaly, all drench'd in slaughter, yield ! 
Thy country's parent hail! O! glorious meed, 
By Rome, yet free, to Cicero decreed ! 
Arpinum's soil a second worthy fed, 
Who plough'd a Volscian mountain's side, for 
bread ; 3 70 

V. 369. Arpinum's soil a second, Sfc. That other was 
the illustrious Caius Marius, who was called the third founder 



238 Sat. viii. Juvenal, v. 37 1—386, 

A soldier next, whene'er his axe was slow, 
His head sustain'd the knotty vine-twig's blow ; 
He quelPd the Cimbri, he sustain'd alone 
The last, worst peril, Rome had ever known : 
And, while on Cimbrian carcases to feed, 37.5 

More huge they ne'er had seen, the Vultures 

speed, 
His noble colleague from that glorious day, 
Tho' first in birth, reap'd but the second bay. 

From no illustrious sires the Decii came, 
Plebeian fortunes ! a Plebeian name ! 380 

Yet these in place of tribes and legions stand, 
To expiate the guilt of all the land ! 
Victims esteem'd sufficient to atone 
The anger of the infernal gods, alone ! 
Sufficient to appease their parent earth, 385 

Than those they sav'd, of far more precious worth ! 



of Rome, and who concealed talents under the pressure of 
early hardships and difficulties, which led him to the dicta- 
torship, and to a seventh consulate — His noble colleague 
was Quintus Catulus — The son of a captive mother was 
Servius Tullius. It was the fate of Marius to bear the severe 
discipline of the camp, and the knotted vine was occasionally 
broken over his head. Of this instrument those staff offi- 
cers, the Centurions, were by no means sparing. One of 
them, Lucilius, (the story is told by Tacitus) carried this 
exercise to so great a length, that it was his custom, after 
breaking one rod over the head of a soldier, to call for ano- 
ther, — ' Cedo alteram.' The soldiers accordingly nicknamed 
him ' Cedo alteram.' 



v. 387 — 396. Sat. vin. Juvenal. 239 

Son of a captive mother, it was" thine, 
Of our good Kings the last of all the line, 
The purple robe of Romulus to wear, 
And to deserve his diadem to bear. 390 

A consul's sons, whom it had well become, 
For the still dubious liberty of Rome, 
Some deed of glorious stamp to meditate, 
Recal the exiPd tyrant to the gate ! 
Youths, who from birth might well to deeds aspire? 
Which e'en th' intrepid Mutius might admire, [395 



V. 391. TSie sons of that Brutus who expelled Tarqttin con- 
spired with some dissolute young men of the first families to 
restore him. The remainder of their story is beautifully told 
by Virgil, iEneid. 6. 

Vis et Tarquinios reges animumque superbum 
Uitoris Bruti fascesque videre recap tos ? 
Consults impei him hic-primus scsvasque secures 
Accipiet, natosque pater nova bella moventes 
Ad pcenam pulchra pro Ubertate vocabit, 
Infelix!— 

V. 396. Which e'en th' intrepid Mutius. I do not think 
it necessary to detain the reader with the thrice-told tales of 
Mutius, of Codes, or of Cleelia ; nor do I think it interesting 
to meddle with the explanations of the words 

Servus 

Matronis lugendus. — — 
In the concluding Hue of the Satire, I have taken a small 
liberty with the ancestors of the Roman Nobility — Juvenal 
more politely had said 

Aut Pastor fuit, aut illud quod dicere nolo. 



240 Sat. vni. Juvenal, v. 397 — 410. 

Or She who fearless swam thro' Tyber's foam, 
While Tiber form'd the boundaries of Rome. 
A slave, by matrons mourn'd, the crime betray'd, 
And to the fathers the dire plot convey'd : 400 

'Twas theirs, the edge of Rome's jirst aoce to feel, 
And bend their necks to the avenging steel. 

I'd rather far Thersites were thy sire, 
So thou would'st to Achilles' deeds aspire ; 
Than that the name of Peleus thou should'st bear, 
Of all Thersites' infamy the heir. — [40a 

Besides, thy very nation's fame derives 
From a foul herd of outlaw'd fugitives ; 
And he of all that boasted line the chief, 
Was— O disgrace ! a shepherd, or a thief ! 410 



argument. 



This Satire bears the form of dialogue. The parties 
who sustain it are Nasvolus, a character of the most infa- 
mous description, and Juvenal, who with a grave irony 
consoles him under the difficulties which he relates. It 
may be wondered at that Juvenal should represent himself 
as engaged in conversation with a person so marked and 
30 abominable ; but perhaps the additional power thus 
acquired to inflict a more severe chastisement than mere 
general discussion would have permitted, might have 
outweighed a consideration of this nature. That the Poet 
execrated the crime here exposed, none can hesitate to 
believe who read the Satire in the original, where he 
has had recourse to the most bare and revolting exposure ; 
a course to which, in translating, we have necessarily 
adopted the opposite. 



Jvto, 



242 



PERSONS AND PLACES 

MENTIONED IN THE SATIRE. 



The few persons who occur in this Satire, are for ob- 
vious reasons mentioned under feigned names, for as Ju- 
venal says, 

Res mortifera est inimicus pumice lavi». 



attre ix. 



Come, tell me, Nasvolus, I long to learn, 

What sad mischance has wrought this wondrous 

turn ; 
The face of vanquished Marsyas more dismay 
Could ne'er exhibit, than does thine to-day S 
Nor Ravola's, betray'd by spiteful fate, & 

With Rhodope, that maid immaculate ! 
Not Pollio's wretched self look'd half so sad, 
When, chas'd by scores of clamorous duns 9 and 

glad 
To offer triple interest, he found 
No fool to trust him, all the city round* 10 

Thou once didst figure, nay, nor long ago— 
With all the graces of an half-bred beau ; 



244 Sat. ix. Juvenal. y. 13 — 22. 

Then, civil hearers lov'd thy sprightly tale, 
And thy Pomcerian wit was never stale : 
Behold thee now the image of despair ! 15 

Thy beard neglected, and uncomb'd thy hair ; 
Bands of warm pitch no more thy limbs compress, 
And all thy hide, one tangled wilderness ; 
Meagre and pale, as they to whom return 
The punctual fit, whom scorching Quartans burn. 

Detect we oft the torments of the mind, [20 
In the sick frame which love to lurk behind ; 



V. 14. And thy Pomcerian jokes. 

Et salibus vehemens intra Pomceria natis. 

The Pomoerium, an open area adjoining the walls, forbid- 
den to be built upon, is here taken for the city itself. Juve- 
nal calls Naevolus, Verna eques, which cannot be translated, 
and only generally understood. Verna was the slave, born 
in a family, and so thoroughly domesticated as, probably, to 
be treated with greater indulgence, and to be among his 
fellow servants, as great as the Eques among inferior citizens. 
But the pleasantry of the expression is necessarily lost. 

V. 17. Bands of warm glue. These were, probably, ap- 
plications of common Resin, the word viscus (i<r%y$ quia vis 
ei magna) being of equivocal meaning. It is well known 
that such were in frequent use among the more effeminate as 
depilatories. Plin. xvi. 2. xxiv. f. 

V. 20. The punctual fit. Another allusion to ague, which, 
with every variety of remittent fever, was the common dis- 
ease of Campania, and remains so to this day. An investiga- 
tion of the prevalence of certain diseases, more than others, 
in different districts of our own country, is a branch of 



v. 2S — 38. Sat. ix. Juvenal. 245 

Oft of suppress'd delight the lines we trace, 

Mark'd on the plastic features of the face. 

Hence must I judge ' thy occupation gone,' 25 

And all those plans of life so much thy own. 

Thee, I remember well, each temple knew, 

The fanes of Ganymede and Isis too, 

And Cybele, the far-fetch'd Phrygian dame, 

Who Rome's imported goddess, hither came : 30 

And, Ceres, thine ! for now what sacred ground, 

Fane, altar, grove, where lewdness is not found ? 

'Twas there thy thriving talents were confest, 

And to more labors than Aufidius prest. 

N. And thus have numbers thriv'd j but yet to me 

Accrued no profit from the mystery ; [35 

Some cloak in texture coarse, in color vile, 

From looms of Gaul, the fruit of all my toil ! 



medicine which has been labored almost beyond any useful 
purpose. The diseases of warm climates have also found 
historians of ability and research ; it would be of more than 
equal interest and importance, if we possessed such a medical 
account of the different countries of Europe, at different seasons 
of the year, and a knowledge of the diseases which prevail in 
them respectively : — momentous inquiries in the projected 
removal of invalids ! it is, for instance, by no means gene-= 
rally known that low fevers prevail along the coast, to which, 
(as I fear with no important benefit) we send our invalids, a 
part of the Island where I have no doubt more fevers occur 
annually than in London. More than the half of this volume 
was written on a spot, which gave me abundant opportunity 
to ascertain this fact. 



246 Sat. ix. Juvenal. v. 39 — 58. 

Some baser silver ; fate's despotic hour 

Reigns and presides o'er each and every power : 40 

If thy auspicious planet's influence fail, 

Then what shall nature's every gift avail ; 

Tho' gloating Virro leer with wanton eye, 

Or with a thousand tender billets ply ? 

(For such, as if by fascination's spell, 45 

Glare on their victim, and his gaze compel) 

Yet say, what sight more hideous than to view 

A wretch by lewdness curst, and avarice too ! 

Which counts its cost, caresses and disputes, 

Computes and flatters, flatters and computes, 50 

And bids you o'er the various items run, 

Here, five sestertia, there, the labor done ; 

He thinks, no doubt, full easy gains be these, 

And that the pleasure pays the power to please ! 

Himself some Ganymede all form'd for love, 55 

Fit for the ministry and cup of Jove ! 

Shall such as these the poor dependent pay, 

Who in the crimes they love the niggard play ? 



V. 46. Glare on their victim. 

avro; y%% stpsXKSTcci AvSga Kivaidog. 

A Parody on a line in the Odyssey, stpsXxwv ok /jt-ayvijr/f 
A;9o; — attracts like a magnet ; I have given another turn to the 
passage, which seems to agree much better with its general 
design; the attractive power said to be exerted by certain 
species of serpents over birds — Fascination. 



v. 59 — 70. Sat. ix. Juvenal. 241 

Such are the tender creatures, whom to screen, 
We must provide the shade of grateful green ; 60 
Large strings of amber must by us be found 
Whene'er a birth or new year's day comes round 9 
And 'tis our cost to mark with presents rare 
Each feast upon the female calendar ! 

Say, tender Turtle, say for whom dost' keep 65 
Those downs o'er which the kite can scarcely 

sweep, 
With wings untir'd, Those vast Apulian plains, 
Vales, Forests, mountains, in thy wide domains ? 
Gaurus, and Cuma's much suspected brow, 
(Dear to the vine) to bless thy board bestow 70 



V. 60. We must provide. On the kalends of March called 
Matronalia, presents were sent to the Roman women, in 
memory of the peace with the Sahines. Some of the articles 
presented are here put down. The Umbella, an awning, or 
Parasol, which, as at present, was green. Amber, a substance 
much admired, and wrought as now into toys and ornaments 
for female use, and presented to Virro, Fcemincis kalendis, 

V. 69. Gaurus, and Cuma's, Sfc. On the epithet of sus- 
pected,' or ' suspicious,' as applied to one of these hills, 
there has been difference of opinion ; some referring it to an 
historical passage of which Cuma was the scene, Liv. xxiii. 
* Campani adorti sunt rem Cumanam siue ditionis facer e, Sfc.' 
others, to a ridge critically impending over the town : but most 
to Vesuvius; which, though at some distance, might be, they 
say, an object of alarm at Cuma, and which is known to have 
been fruitful in vines beyond all the mountains of Campania, 



248 Sat. ix. Juvenal. v. 71 — 88, 

Their choicest juice — then Trifolinus fills, 
More casks for thee than all Campania's hills. 
Wer't much to give a rood or two away, 
The labors of thy wretched drudge to pay, 
That cot, for instance, where supremely blest, 75 
Sports the young whelp by village boy carest, 
His own, his Mother's home ; on us conferr'd, 
Say would it rob, thy foul dependent Herd j 
More meet for him thy cymbal-thumping friend, 
Than us, who on thy base delights attend ? 80 

* Still craving ! still demands ! ' — I'll tell thee why, 
Debts must be paid, and wants require supply. 
An hungry boy at home must still be fed, 

Like smarting Polypheme he'll roar for bread. 

Or think* st thou, I can thus my servants greet, 85 

And warm their naked shoulders and their feet, 

* Cold ! — never mind — a month or two, and then 

* The grasshoppers, my lads, will come again/ 



V. 85. Or think'st thou. Durate et cxpectate cicadas — 
a very facetious passage, preceded, however, by an allusion of 
some little difficulty, of which I almost doubt whether I 
have given the sense, ' that the slave without food would be as 
clamorous as Polyphemus under the hands of Ulysses,' but it 
is of no great importance : the words ' unicus' followed 
by ' alter emendus erii,' if translated, according to their 
simple meaning, are not well applicable to Nasvolus, who was, 
it seems, in no way to enlarge his establishment. Dusaulx, I 
observe, has translated as I have done, ' criant aussi haut que 
Polypheme dont V adroit Ulysse creva I'ceil pour s'evader, fyc." 



v. 89— 116. Sat. ix. Juvenal* 249 

As for the rest, conceal it as you may, 
One deed thou never canst enough repay. 90 

Had it not been for me, thy slave alone, 
Thy wife must still have worn her virgin zone. 
How oft didst thou implore my needful aid, 
And bring me to embrace the flying maid 1 
She tore the contracts, was just signing new, 95 
One long whole night scarce made her peace with 

you ! 
Deny it not, for thou thyself wert near, 
And what thou could' st not see, thou well couldst 

hear. 
The knot of wedlock nearly cleft in twain, 
Oft has the adulterer's care secur'd again ! 100 

What farther subterfuge ? ungenerous man, 
Come, underrate the service if you can, 
That you, thus aided, bid the sneerers see 
Convincing Documents — deriv'd from me ! 
Thy honor'd door with flowers and boughs adorn, 
And tell the world, your heir, your heir is born: [105 
Yet think to whom thou ow'dst a father's name, 
'Twas I that hush'd th' insulting tongue of fame. 
Important rights, paternity secures, 
Friends may bequeath, and heritage be yours ; 110 
No trifling benefits ! but greater yet, 
If I, too civil to refuse ! beget 
Another Brace— and then! — J. Indeed, indeed, 
You're hardly dealt with, — what doesVirro plead? 



250 Sat ix. Juvenal, v. 117 — 140. 

Or what alledge ? — N. Alledge? he tries to find 

Some biped Ass, more docile and resign' d ! [115 

But this is all in confidence — be sure, 

My wrongs repose in thine own breast secure ; 

These pumic'd friends become relentless foes, 

All terror lest their secret we disclose ! 120 

A blow well levePd makes the case secure, 

A stab well aim'd can secresy insure, 

Or, by your chamber door, when none is near, 

They plant a torch, — then poison's never dear ! 

O deeply, deeply then be all conceal'd, 125 

Close as the court of Mars, and ne'er to be reveal'd. 

J. Ah silly swain, where have those senses slept, 

To dream a rich man's secret can be kept. 

If slaves were silent, then the mules would tell, 

Dogs, pavements, walls, and posts would break the 

spell! 130 

Your lattice close, adjust the curtains right, 
Shut fast the door, extinguish ev'ry light ; 
Send all to sleep in rooms from thine remote, 
Yet, what thou didst ere the cock's matin-note, 
Before 'tis good broad daylight shall be known 135 
At the next vintner's shop ; nor this alone, 
But what thy grooms and scullions choose to add, 
For can they make their masters seem too bad ? 
T' avenge their countless wrongs will such be 

slack, 
Or fail in slanderous tales to pay thee back ? 140 



T. 141—160. Sat. ix. Juvenal, 251 

E'en on reluctant hearers full of wine, 
They force the Tale he'd willingly decline — 
Secure their silence ? no — they'll rather choose 
The glorious right, their masters to abuse, 
Than drink of stol'n Falernian at will, 145 

More than Laufella, at a gulp could swill. 
Let virtue be thy inmate and thy prize, 
So, join'd to greater gains, shalt thou despise 
The tales of slaves, for of this tribe accurst, 
Blended with all that's bad, the tongue is worst ; 150 
Yet far more vile than e'en that tongue is he 
Who from the rogues he fattens, is not free. 
N. The counsel's good — but trite — and to pursue. 
Say, what wouldst thou persuade me now to do, 
When hopes have fail'd, my time and labor gone — ■ 
Life's floweret droops, and withers ere 'tis blown; 
Most brief its utmost date, and all the while 
We fill the cup, or court the fair one's smile, 
Age steals with noiseless tread, and ere we fear, 
The sad unwelcome visitant is here. 160 



V. 146. More than Laufella. Or, as some make it, Sau- 
feia, * pre populo faciens,' sacrificing for the people. Ano- 
ther allusion to the mysteries of the bona Deal this, of 
course, refers to some well-known anecdote of the time ; but 
it has perished. 



252 SaL ix. Juvenal, v. 161 — 176. 

J. Fear nof, thou ne'er shalt want a pathic friend, 
While those seven hills shall stand ! to Rome they 

tend, 
To Rome in ships, to Rome in chariots come ; 
The nerveless Pathic's universal home ! 
Fear not — but eat Eringoes, friend, and thrive : 165 
N. Alas, to luckier wights thy counsel give ; 
My Lachesis and Clotho are content, 
If all my toils mere famine can prevent. 
Ye humble Lares ! ye, to whom I bring 
Some scrap of incense for an offering ; 170 

Ye, who with scanty wreaths I often crown, 
When shall I say, Come, this is now * my own?' 
Of tMs, at least, the interest is sure, 
And from the beggar's staff my age secure. 
A cup which well might make Fabricius stare, 175 
And two stout Mcesians to support my chair, 

V. l6l. Fear not. A dreadful prediction ! but can it be 
said, as to its accomplishment, 

Montihus ignotum Rntulis ccsloque Latino ? 

V. 175. A cup which well might make. That is, a very 
small one. This censor, Fabricius Luscinus, obtained the 
removal of P. Cornelius Rufinus from the senate, because he 
had displayed upon his table more than ten pound weight of 
wrought silver! which was the maximum permitted by a 
sumptuary law. 

What a prodigious effect on the general morals of a 
country must sumptuary laws have produced 1 Few, perhaps, 
which show a deeper acquaintance with human nature, or 
which reflect greater credit on the sagacity of the legitlator ! 



v. 177-^182. Sat. ix. Juvenal. 253 

Be these but mine ! — perhaps too I might add, 
But hold — already must you think me mad : 
Ah fruitless wish ! for mine's a hopeless lot, 
Fortune if I but name, she hears me not, 180 

But stops her ear with wax, the lucky freight 
Of the fam'd ship which shunn'd impending fate ; 



V. 181. The lucky freight. An allusion to the story of 
Ulysses, who, by the counsel of Circe, desired his crew to 
stop their ears in passing by the dangerous coast of Sicily, 
inhabited by the Syrens, who sang so divinely, as by alluring 
the incautious mariner among the rocks, sometimes to accom- 
plish his destruction. The crew of Ulysses rowed vigor- 
ously, arid heard nothing. 

Olli cert amine snmmo 
Procumbtmt : vastis tremit ictibus area puppis 
Subtrahiturque solum : turn creber anhelitus artus 
Aridaque ora quatit, sudor fluit undique rivis. 
I transcribe the story of the Sirens from Pope's translation,, 
in which the reader will observe several very beautiful lines 

* While yet I speak, the winged galley flies, 
' And lo ! the Siren shores like mists arise. 

' Sunk were at once the winds ; the air above, 

' And waves below, at once forget to move ! 

' Some Daemon calm'd the air, and smooth'd the deep, 

* Hush'd the loud winds, and calm'd the waves to sleep. 
' Now every sail we furl, each oar we ply ; 

* Lash'd by the stroke, the frothy waters fly. 

* The ductile wax, with busy hands, I mould, 

* And cleft in fragments, and the fragments roll'd : 

* Th' aerial region now grew warm with day, 

6 The wax dissolv'd beneath the burning ray S 



254 Sat. ix. Juvenal, v. 183— 185. 

Seaward they turn'd the prow, toiPd every oar, 
With strokes redoubled, till the fateful shore 
Faded in mist, and land was seen no more ! 185 



Then every ear I barr'd against the strain, 
And from excess of phrensy lock'd the brain/ 

Pope's Homer's Odyssey, b. xii. 



Argument. 



In this beautiful and impressive piece, the high moral 
character of Juvenal, his profoundly philosophical mind, 
and his powers as a poet, may be all seen to the greatest 
advantage. It is here that he shows ' with the sublime 
indifference of a superior being, the virtues, talents, desti- 
ny of the greatest men ; taking experience for his guide, 
his reasonings, in this satire, are mixed with examples, of 
which the greater part are chosen with exquisite judg- 
ment/ 

' These reasonings, however,' says Gibbon, ' would have 
been clearer, had Juvenal distinguished between wishes, 
the accomplishment of which could not fail to make us 
miserable, and those whose accomplishment might fail to 
make us happy. — Absolute power is of the first kind, 
long life of the second.' 

The beauties of this piece are too numerous to admit, 
and too obvious to require, detail, the arrangement too 
simple to need an introduction, and the superlative merit 
of the whole, such, that it has come down to us with 
the accumulated applause of ages. 



256 

PERSONS AND PLACES 

MENTIONED IN THE SATIRE. 



PERSONS. 

~Nnrscia, a goddess, worshipped in Etruria, the country of 
Sejamis, and the tutelary divinity of Volsinium, the 
birth-place of that minister 

Basilus, not the same with the advocate mentioned with 
respect in the seventh Satire, but some knave, who dis- 
graced the name. 

Themison. See Note on the passage. 

Hamilhis, a notorious offender : the same vice imputed 
to him, by Martial, vii. 6l. 

Hippia has been introduced before, Sat. vi. The arti- 
cle Hipparcha, in Bayle, might suit her extremely well. 

Phiale, an harlot worthy of being singled out even among 
the harlots of Rome — Fellatrix. 

Antilochus, the promising heir of the kingdom of Pylus, 
who after rescuing his father Nestor in battle, fell by 
the hand of Memnon. 

Assaracus, the founder of the family of Priam — Cassan- 
dra, Polyxena, two of his daughters — the first of them 
endowed by the poet with prophetic power ; the other 
herself an instance much in point to the purpose of the 
Satire, since she was spared from the flames of Troy 



257 

to be butchered on the tomb of Achilles. Vide Euripid. 
Hecuba. 

JEndymion, a shepherd, who had the good fortune to 

please Diana. 
Oppia, Catulla, unknown. 
Sardanapalus, the last king of Assyria ; idemque Mollissi- 



In the progress of this work I have often half repented 
of my plan of prefixing the dramatis persona to each 
Satire, from the great paucity of materials : it spared, 
however, a larger annotation in the earlier Satires, where 
the names are more numerous, and better known. 



JufJ, R 



Satire X, 



Throughout the lands which wide extended 

lie, 
From Ganges, and the golden eastern sky 
To Gades and the west, how few can see 
Their real good, from clouds of error free ! 
What hope, what fear, unting'd by passion's hue, 5 
Thro' reason's lucid medium do we view ? 
What unrepented project hast thou fram'd, 
What vow preferr'd, nor wish'd the gift re- 
claim' d ? 
Bought by the sire's too persevering prayer, 
The granted curse his ruin'd children share ! 10 
Some covet sure destruction in the gown, 
Some in the soldier's perilous renown; 
That envied eloquence for which they sue, 
Oft brings to early tombs, the gifted few, 
And he that on a giant's strength relied, 15 

Fell in that strength, the victim of his pride. 

How vast the throng who take delight to sweep 
From every side, and swell the golden heap ! 



v. 19—26. Sat. x. Juvenal. 259 

Nor cease, till theirs, far as the British whale 
Excels the Dolphin, o'er the rest prevail ! 20 

Yet what but gold, when Nero gave the nod, 
Drew a whole cohort to the fam'd abode 
Of Lateranus ? lo ! the ample grounds 
Of Seneca, too rich, a troop surrounds ! — 
No ruffian soldier shall the haunts explore, 25 

Or burst into the garrets of the poor ! 



V. 21. Yet what but gold- A few words seem requisite on 
the instances here adduced. The accusation of • Cassius Lon- 
ginus was, according to Suetonius, ' quod in vetere gentili 
stemmate C. Cassii percussoris Ctesaris imagines retinuisset,' 
this distinguished Lawyer, old and blind, and excessively 
rich, was desired with several others similarly qualified, to 
hold themselves in readiness for death within an hour ! 

The accusation of Seneca was not of the same covert kind ; 
they came expressly to the point tanquam ingentes et priva- 
tum supra modum evectas opes adhuc augeret, Hortorurn 
quoque amosnitate et villarum niagnificentia quasi Princi- 
PEM supeegrederetur. Tacit. Annal. xiv. 52. 

The Lateranus particularly mentioned, was treated with 
even greater severity. Platdii Laterani consulis designati, 
necem proximam Nero adjunxit adeo propere ut non com- 
plecti liberos, non illud breve mortis arbitrium permitteret. 
Tacit. Annal. xv, 

Their palace was on the Ceeiian hill — the site of it was 
granted to Sylvester by Constantine, the building raised 
there received, and the palace now standing retains, the name 
of the Later an — 

Xovtrs, vx-fag koKccxcuv, oSwr^ %ai tp%ovrt$o; vie, 



260 Sat. x. Juvenal, v. 27 — 42. 

Hast thou one silver spoon ? good neighbour, stay — 
Nor tempt the road before the dawn of day, 
That prize of thine, the poignard shall invite, 
Each rustling bough shall fill thy soul with fright — ■ 
With empty pockets one may tramp along, [30 
And in the footpad's presence, chaunt the song ! 

Yet the first yows to ev'ry temple known, 
Are still for wealth : * O give us wealth alone ! 
4 And of the piles, which in the Forum rest, 35 
* Be ours, ye Gods ! be ours— 'the largest chest !' 
What film, ye erring mortals, clouds your sight ! 
In earthen cups, there lurks no Aconite : 
Fear ye the heryl'd vase, and trembling hold 
The Setian juice which glows in cups of gold ! 40 

And shall we then extol those Sages twain, 
Who look'd on all with pity and disdain., 



V. 39- Fear ye the bcryl'd vase. This is the place to 
make an excursus concerning Setian wine ! The kind of wine, 
however, not by any means illustrating the beauty of the 
passage, I rather transcribe from Comus, two lines in which the 
same strong metaphor ? ardebit in auro' is introduced with, 
more than equal success, and by a more than equal hand. 
And Jirst behold this cordial Julep here, 
That flames and dances in his crystal bounds. 

Comus, 672. 
V. 41. Those sages twain. Concerning these distinguished 
philosophers, I must be silent. Pliny imputes to Democritus, 
as a sad abatement of his character for wisdom, an absurd 
expectation of the immortality of the soul, (lvii. 55.) where 
lie ridicules the follv of those ' who hold that to be almost a 



v. 43 — 59* Sat. x. Juvenal. 261 

Who, ere they mov'd a foot beyond the door, 
Found something new to laugh at, or deplore ? 
Yet may we most admire — for all can sneer, 45 
What spring prolific still supplied the tear ! 
Democritus would laugh — and loudly too, 
Tho' in his time attempts at pomp were few : 
Tho' gowns, and dull processions were unknown, 
In the poor annals of Abdera's town— 50 

O ! had he seen, affectedly sedate, 
Our Prastor, perch'd aloft in car of state, 
Dividing as he went the countless crowd, 
'Midst shouts, and dust, and acclamations loud ; 
His robe all stiff with tinsel and brocade, 55 

And (figur'd by the Tyrian needle's aid) 
Jove's borrow'd tunic on his back display 5 d ; 
A crown, so vast the weight ! that none can wear, 
Borne by the sweating slave behind his chair, 



God which has now ceased to be a Man.' These sages no- 
where make a better figure than in a Greek epigram, which 
I attempt for the benefit of a few readers. 
Life, Heraclitus, was less gloomy far, 
When thou in tears deplor'dst its weight of care ; 
And far less mad when thy Associate smil'd, 
At the fond griefs of Nature's "wayward child! — 
For me, as each by turns I seem to view, 
Methinks I'd weep with him, — and laugh withyoul 

The next lines of the Satire contain a successful banter of 
a very silly and absurd pomp, of which the Romans were 
remarkably fond. 



262 Sat. aci Juvenal. v. 60 — 71. 

(The slave ordain'd in the same car to ride, 60 

Lest its great lord should lose his wits with pride) 

Rome's eagle on the polish' d sceptre wrought, 

And, by th* alluring dole, securely brought, 

Of clients clad in white a goodly train, 

'Midst horns and trumpeters who tend the rein! — 65 

On ev'ry spot frequented by his kind, 

Subjects for scorn, he never fail'd to find — 

Learn we from him that ev'ry soil may bear 

Of highly-gifted minds its proper share j 

That virtue thrives, where fatten'd wethers lie, 70 

On swampy lands, and in an hazy sky ! 



V. 71. On swanvpy lands, fyc. This puts one in mind 
of the reply of some one to a question, concerning a fine 
country, through which he was passing — * very fine — for an 
Ox.' Pindar and Epaminondas were sufficient to rescue the 
ancient Bceotia from its imputation, while the land most dis- 
tinguished in modern times for the crassitude of its air, 
boasts her Erasmus. Of all extrinsic causes which have been 
supposed to influence human character or genius, one should 
incline to give least to climate : Sir George Mackenzie's 
Iceland has cleared up some important points on this subject. 
But our own country which has produced, and is for ever 
producing, far moTe than her share of every species of talent, 
crasso sub aire, (for ours is a region of clouds, compared 
with the sky of Southern Europe) is the most obvious and 
gratifying argument against the soundness of the physical 
hypothesis ; and I might add, a sufficient proof of the 
solidity of that theory which rather assigns the developement 
and productiveness of genius to the operation of moral and 
of political causes. 



v. 72—85. Sat. x. Juvenal* 263 

At vulgar cares he smil'd, at vulgar joy ; 

No sorrows of the mob could e'er alloy 

His mood of mirth : reckless of fortune's grace, 

He rudely flung the halter in her face, 75 

Laugh' d at her frowns, and turn'd him from the 

shrine, 
Which erring mortals falsely deem divine. 
But we to altars and to statues run, 
Eager to gain, what it were best to shun, 
And to their knees affix the frequent prayer, 80 
For hurtful things — or what we best might spare. 
Hurl'd from power's dangerous height, how 
many mourn 
All the bright page of honor rudely torn ! 
Here diagg'd in dust, dishonor'd statues view, 
Thrown from their base, — there furious axes hew, 

V. 80. And to their knees. 

Propter qucefas est genua incerare deorum. 

A remarkable expression ; the knees were the seat of mercy : 
in his sedes miser icor dice et qucedam religio inest obseri-atione 
gentium. Hcec supplicea attingunt : ad hcec manus tendunt : 
hcec ut aras adorant. Plin. 1. ii. 45. 

This passage is supposed to allude to the custom of writing 
the petition on a tablet, and affixing it by means of wax to the 
knees of the God whose assistance was sought: I have given 
it this turn. 

V. 84. Here dragg'd in dust. Dion well describes this 
scene of the arrest of Sejanus ; after the letter of Tiberius was 
read in the Senate, Regulus called to Sejanus, ' Follow me,' he 
made no reply, not from Insolence, says the Historian, for he 
was now humbled, but because he was quite unaccustomed to 
hear any thing in the nature of command addressed to himself. 



264 Sat. x. Juvenal. v. 86 — 93. 

From the triumphal car, its sculptur'd wheel, [85 
While at each blow the marble horses reel ! 
And next behold the fiery current pour'd 
Full on the features of that face ador'd : 
He melts !— Sejanus melts ! — 'midst faggots hurFd, 
And see ! the second man in all the world, [90 
Flows in the mold, and by the artist's skill, 
Transform'd to cups, pans, platters — what you will. 



cos h kcci Ssvfegov xui r^irov ys sxstvos syfioYjcras ol KAI THN 
XE1PA AMA EKTEINA2 £Jtf£ 2EIANE AETPO E AGE, efW, w- 
tvjffBV avrov rovto, EME KAAEIS ; 

Having secured the man, they proceeded to the statues, 
ras re siKOv&s avrov rtao-as KATEBAAON xca KATEKO^AN, 
Kfiti KATESTPON. 

But the ferocity exercised Upon the children of Sejanus, es- 
pecially upon his daughter, shows what a brutal people the 
Romans really were ! such a retribution would now be impos- 
sible in any civilized country. 

V. 90. He melts! Sejanus melts. The whole passage 
which follows is most lively and descriptive : the abrupt 
dialogue of the Interlocutors, their acquiescence in the ' Ver- 
bosa et grandis Epistola;' the quick recollection of the faults 
of Sejanus, on seeing his statues demolished, their fear for 
themselves, are all inimitably drawn. In the expression 'the 
mob of Remus/ (the general intention of which is sufficiently 
obvious,) there was of course something particularly expressive 
of degradation to a Roman ear. The bustle about melting 
Sejanus, is so admirably drawn, and the fire so well blown 
up, that the reader, like the listener in Burns' Holy Fair, 
Thinks he hears it roaring ! 



V. 94— 113. Sat. x. Juvenal. 265 

1 Haste ! deck your door with laurels, to extol 

* This glorious day, lead to the capitol 35 
e A snow-white bull, the proud Sejanus torn, 

e And trampled lies, the very rabble's scorn :' 
'Tis gladness all ! — G what hideous lips are there! 
£ Gods, what a face ! —-as for myself, I swear, 

* I lik'd him not, though'— ' No, nor I, but pray, 1 00 
i What brought the villain down? 5 ' I cannot say,' — • 
6 Who first inform'd ? what evidence was heard, 

* To prove his crimes ?' — ' Why none, as it ap~ 

6 pear'd'— 
4 None ?' — ' none at all — but in the Emperor's 

' name, 
c FromCapreas a long epistle came,' — 105 

* Ah ! I conceive,' — * but tell me — do you learn, 

* How does the mob of Remus like the turn ?' 

6 Why just as usual, — they intensely hate 

* The ruin'd man, and take the side of 

FATE.' 

Had Nurtia prosper'd well our Tuscan's scheme, 
And you, secure old dotard, ceas'd to dream, [1 10 
That very mob had hail'd— that very hour— 
Sejanus, lawful heir to Caesar's power ! 

V. 112. That very mob, Sfc. What Juvenal most truly 
tells us that a mob, any mob, would do, Tacitus records 
that they did on another occasion. 

When, after the murder of Galba, they rush in a body to 
the Palace, and demand the blood of Otho, and the Conspira- 
tors, the historian adds these memorable words — Neque tills 
judicium, nee Veritas, quippe eodem die Diversa pari cer- 



266 Sat. x. Juvenal, v. 114 — 129, 

Within our breasts, such cares have ceas'd to dwell, 
Since we have had no suffrages — to sell ; 115 

Supine to every care, that lofty pride, 
Chairs, Fasces, Thrones, which, granted or denied, 
Begs but two boons of all it priz'd before, 
Bread and the Circus, — and desires no more ! 

* Many, they say, will perish' — * doubt it not, 120 
4 The fire is huge and desperately hot !— 

* Close to the fane of Mars, a little pale 

* Brutidius (who no doubt had heard the tale,) 
s Walk'd swiftly by — I fear on some pretence, 

c Ajax will scourge us for his ill defence. — 1 25 
s Come, haste we then, ere in the stream he's 

thrown, 
c And to the kicks of others join our own : 
c But call we first our slaves, that they may know 
s How much their masters hated Cassar's foe. 

tamine postulaturis ; sed tradito more quemcunque 
Principem adulandi Licentia, adclamatione et studiis inani- 
bus, Sfc. 

V. 125. Ajax will scourge us. Juvenal is fond of com- 
plimenting some of his favorites among the Emperors, with a 
name from the Iliad ; that of this boisterous hero, surnamed 
uacmyoipof oc, is particularly well applied to Tiberius, who like 
his namesake rushed into the most frantic excesses, and slew 
with almost as little discrimination all who could rouse 
his slightest suspicion : as devoid of reason in his cruelties as 
the son of Telamon, save that the latter, while he scourged and 
hewed down cattle, judged them to be men, while Tiberius 
treated men as if he judged them to be cattle. 



v# 130 — 139. Sat x. Juvenal. 267 

e Lest of these rascals, any choose to swear, 130 
« That we stood idle by or were not there !' 
Thus of Sejanus, as he prostrate lay, 
The crowd discours'd— dispers'd, and went their 
way. 
Would'st thou be thus saluted? would'st thou fill 
That dangerous post of his ? dispose at will 135 
Of curule chairs, of armies— or yet more, 
Hold o'er thy pupil Prince, a guardian's power ? 
Thy Prince, who sits 'midst his Chaldean herd, 
To Rome, the crags of Caprese preferr'd ! 



V. 126. Of Curule chairs. ' The seats called Sella Curuies 
were a mark of distinction which belonged to certain ranks of 
the Roman magistracy : there are two of them in the cabinet : 
at Rome they were usually of Ivory, here they are of bronze, a 
palm and seven inches in height, and two palms seven inches in 
breadth. The arms and feet are composed of pieces crossing 
each other, in the form of the letter X, with the parts below 
their junction turned into a spiral. It must be added that 
the feet terminate in the head of some imaginary animal whose 
lengthened bill or snout bears on the ground.' 

Winkelman's account of Discovery at Hercul. p. 75, 

V. 138. Thy Prince who sits. Some copies read augusta, 
others angusta rupe, the sense of either equally good : as to 
the fact, it is well known that Tiberius made the island of 
Capreae the scene of his infamous and unexampled debauch- 
eries, ' Capreas se contulit prtecipue delectatus insula quod 
uno parvoque littore adiretur, septa undiqne prceruptis 
immensce altitudinis rupibus et prof undo maris,' Suet. Tiber. 
See also Tacit. Ann. 1. iv. near the end. 

""As to his ' Chaldzean herd/ euireioorcttos Sax rcvv aa-fwuv 



268 Sat. x. Juvenal. v. 140—147. 

Yes ; thou would'st gladly see the' cohort stand, 140 
The well-appointed horse at thy command, 
The camp around thy door, — c and why refuse ? — 
6 'Tis well to have the power — tho' not to use.' 
But tell me, dost thou rate the joy so high, [145 
When with the power the peril still must vie ? 
Say, would'st thou rather bear his purple train 
Than at Fidenas* Gabii, safely reign 



fbxrtixvjs v t v. The reader may turn back to further illustration 
of his love of astrology and divination in the notes on the 
6th Satire. 

This wretched and abandoned character, in the latter scenes 
of his life, illustrated in the minutest particulars, that elo- 
quent description of the miseries contingent to unprincipled 
royalty. Xenophon. Agesil. vL 4. 

To 8s (popsHrdou psv ox^ov, QofisurQat 8s s^m<xv t <poj3si<r8cci 8s~ 
aipvXa^iccv, <po(3eicr8oci Ss xoci avrovg rov; <pvXXa.<r(rovta^, kou w?& 
avoirXoug e&sXsiv, sysiv tis^i aurcv /at; 9' witXHrpsvovs rj8suj$ Qeoto-Qoci 
Ttuj; ovx a^yaXsw scrti it^ay^a. ; ~Erios £svot$ paXXov u,sv r t 
ntoXiTcu; iftTTsvEiv, r6v$ ij.sv sXsvds^ovc SouXo'v; sysiv, tovg 8s 
SouXov; a.va.yxa&ffQaci itoisiv sXsvh^ovg ov tfarfa, crot rccvra. 8oxsi t 
'■I'V^S VTto fofiwv xa.taitSTtXr j y^syr l ; rsxy^cioc sivai. 

V. 146. Say, would' st thou rather. The fall of Sejanus 
was well merited ; his power had become little short of abso- 
lute dominion, his image was every-where to be seen by the 
side of his master's ; two golden chairs were carried for them 
to the theatre ; sacrifices performed before their respective 
images ; and, in short, such a train was laid, as to make it 
not at all doubtful that Juvenal was correct in saying, 



v. 148—149. Sat. x. Juvenal. 269 

And break illigal measures, and display 
Jn all its petty pomp, the iEDiLEs* sway, 



— Populus, si Nurscia Tuscum 
Favisset, si oppressa foret secure seneclus 
Principis ; hac ipsa Sejanum diceret hora, 
Augustum ! 

At length this celebrated minister became as imprudent as 
he was prosperous, and treated Tiberius as the Governor of a 
small Island, so that, to speak in a word, says Dion, (trvvsXovn 
snfstv) — awfov psv otvroKgarogoc tov h Tifisgiov NHSIAPXON 
TINA eivai fox.eiv T 

He now became excessively jealous of any failure of atten- 
tions, any remissness in the punctuality of courtesy, on the 
part of the Roman Nobility : on which trait of character the 
historian excellently remarks, * that those who are conscious of 
their own respectability neither eagerly require such submis- 
sions, nor feel hurt at the omission of them, knowing that 
contempt cannot be the origin of the neglect ;' but that those 
whose dignity consists essentially in such marks of reverence, 
are greatly disturbed when they fail of receiving them. — \<xv 
apoc kqu sx.\si<pfa rt avrcvv ovx syxaXovtri crftcriv, arts xai sauroi; 
2TNEIA0TE2 'OTI MH KATA$PONOTNTAI : o) h EIIAK- 
TQ.t KAAAQIIISMATI xgoopevoi, Ttavta ISXTPIIS raroiauta, 
ws Srj sgi'rjV rou a^icv^ato; vipuiv Tt\rj()U}<riv avaynaux, sitiXyrtovvi. 

Sejanus was as well warned as it was possible for a minister 
to be, by omens and prodigies. Crows lighted on his head 
and flapped their wings in his face as he went to sacrifice ; 
(xogxKe; tfegtatfrocpsvoi xxi IIEPIKPX1SANTES avrov) ' but, 
bad a God expressly sent a message to the Roman people, 
announcing the approaching fall of Sejanus, none (says Dion,) 
would have listened to him/ At last a sudden eruption of 
smoke burst forth from one of his statues, and on taking off the 



270 Sat. x. Juvenal. v. 150 — 161. 

Who seated in his patch'd and mended gown, 150 
Rules o'er Ulubrae's unpretending town ? 
Thou would'st not be Sejanus ? — then admit 
He knew not what for man to ask was fit ; 
Knew not, that blinded by the lust of power, 
He rear'd the stages of a lofty tower, 155 

Only to strew a mightier ruin round, 
And hurl the hapless builder to the ground. 
"What wrought the Crassi's fall, or Pompey's woes, 
Or His who scourg'd the Romans as he chose ? 
What but this vow with ceaseless care preferr'd, 1 60 
And Gods malign, who in displeasure heard ! 



bead to see the cause, a great snake leapt up, of is psyag 
scysTT^rjtxsv. Then, the Statue of Fortune turned upon her 
heel when he passed by, and looked another way — and 
Sejanus began to be afraid. 

Now followed the \ verbosa et grandis epistola,' as Juvenal 
calls it. Y) STno-taXYj sv rovrcv aveyvwo-fy HN AE MAKPA.- — 
and most artfully did it contrive to ' damn with faint praise/ 
and to accomplish its purpose by opposites, Never was a 
greater master than Tiberius in the art of dissembling — 
oufcv A0POON Kcctcc rov ^lavou h^v (tj stfi <rro Atj) aAAa roc 
psv iT^ujTa aXXo rt, si-ra MEM¥IN Tiva holt aurso BPAXEIAN* 
k«i [j,st avTTiv 'ETEPON TI, xou xat' exsivou AAAO* At the 
end he hinted that it might be as well under the circum- 
stances, to put Sejanus in custody / 

But this note is already too long ; the rest of the story 
is admirably told by Dio, and concluded with some reflec- 
tions on the instability of Fortune, extremely just and 
beautifully drawn. 



v. 162—175. Sat. x. Juvenal. 271 

Few bloodless Kings to Pluto's realms repair, 
Without a stab are found few Princes there. 

To seek by eloquence a path to fame, 
To earn Demosthenes', or Tully's name, 165 

This wish already warms his ardent sense, 
Who courts Minerva's aid with punctual pence s 
Who marches on, to daily school consign' d, 
The satchel and the guardian slave behind. 
Of both that splendid talent wrought the doom, 
That flood of genius bore them to the tomb j [170 
Heap'd coward insults on the Consul dead, 
And on the rostra fix'd that honor'd head ! 
None e'er beheld that lofty station yet, 
With the warm blood of poor declaimers wet. 175 



V. 1(52. Few bloodless Kings. This regicide doctrine was 
abundantly acted upon in the latter ages of the Roman 
empire, which had a more rapid succession of masters than 
probably any other period in the history of the world can 
parallel. But unluckily after all, the worst of them some- 
times contrived to live longer than the better sort, and 
Augustus and Tiberius managed to leave the world, after all, 
sicca morte. 

V. 157. Who courts Minerva's aid. The Quinquatria was 
a Festival of 5 days long, in honor of the Athenian Goddess. 
On this occasion, say the commentators, a small Fee, called 
Minerval, was presented to the teacher by the young pupil, 
who dated his school from this feast. On this occasion too, 
the old pupils (Horat. Epist ii. v. 197-) were indulged in 
an holiday. 



272 Sat. x. Juvenal. v. 176 — 187. 

1 O happy Rome, thy natal day may date 

4 From the proud period of my Consulate.' 

Ah ! had he always spoken thus, the sword 

Of Anthony had ne'er his bosom gor'd : 

Rhymes which provoke derision I would claim, 1 80 

Ere that Philippic of conspicuous fame, 

The second on the roll ! — a fearful end 

Awaited him, who knew at will to bend 

His own admiring Athens, and could rein 

The raging Theatre to sense again. 185 

Blear'd from the forge, him did his sire consign, 

(Born under adverse Gods and fates malign) 



V. 176. Oh, happy Rome. 

O fcrtunatam natam me Consule Romam. 

This miserably jingle is not badly imitated by Martiguac, 

O Rome f or tune e, 
Sous men consulat nee. 

V. 182. The second on the roll. 

Voheris a prima quce proximo.. 
That by this periphrasis the second Oration of Cicero against 
Antony is intended, there can be no doubt. Whether it were 
the second roll of the set (for there were fourteen Orations in 
all) or the second on a roll which contained more than one, 
is immaterial. This celebrated speech, in which the orator 
sharply reprehends all the crimes and excesses of Antony, 
made the latter, of course, his implacable enemy, and led by 
no remote consequence to the destruction of Cicero. 

V. 1S7. Blear d from the forge. This illustrious orator, 



v. 189—204. Sat. x. Juvenal. 273 

To con the rules which Orators impart, 

And learn the secrets of a dangerous art ! 1 90 

The Spoils of war, the Trophies rais'd on high, 
Which tell the tale of glorious victory, 
The shatter'd fragments of an helmet cleft, 
The coat of mail, the car of Pole bereft, 
The vanquish'd Trireme's flag, the lofty arch, 195 
Where the proud conqueror leads his glorious march, 
And bands of gazing captives rang'd above, 
Some hold the noblest joys that man may prove ! 
Greek, Roman, and Barbarian, all have sought 
The Warrior's wreath, by toils and peril bought ; 
Nor other motive knew, nor other cause, [200 
Than what we thirst for most of all — Applause ! 
Applause more priz'd than virtue !— for 

REMOVE 

Distinction's plume, and who shall vir- 
tue love ? 

whose astonishing powers are described just above by a bold 
and striking metaphor, was the son of an artisan of Athens, 
as the most say, of a smith, at any rate, of a sword-maker. 
zireKa.Xz.iTQ yw/jxi^OTtoioc,, sgyxcrrygiov s%ov y-sya xcci Sovhov; 
7&yjvra,s. His instructor in eloquence was Isseus ; but ac- 
cording to Plutarch, his father died when Demosthenes was 
seven years old, and was therefore guiltless of his misfortunes. 
On the same authority he was not placed with Isocrates, the 
great master of that time, only from inability to pay the 
higher fees, which he exacted from his pupils ! 

V. 197. And bands of gazing captives. The line 
. — Summo tristis captivus in arm 

Juv. S 



274 .Sat. x. Juvenal. v. 205 — 216. 

This restless lust of fame, this fatal pride 205 

To mark the stones which shall their ashes hide, 
Where some wild fig-tree soon perchance shall coil, 
Nor needs there more to loosen all the pile ! 
(Tombs have their date !)— this phrenzy of a few 
Oft works their ruin and their country's too! 210 

That Urn of ashes to the balance bear, 
And mark how much of Hannibal be there ; 
E'en from the confines of Nile's tepid wave 
To shores where loud Atlantic billows rave, 
From ^Ethiopia's frontier, to the plains 215 

Of India's elephant the wide domains, 



would natural])' be interpreted (on recollection that a prin- 
cipal part of a Roman triumph consisted in the magnanimous 
exposure and humiliation of the captives!) as I have trans- 
lated it. This sense Dryden has adopted in two exquisite 
lines which I have cited in the introduction. But the com- 
mentators come with the intelligence that nothing more is 
meant, than an emblematical figure of a captive, carved at the 
head of the arch : it may be so, yet if this be the meaning, 
the proper authority would be some one of the triumphal 
arches which still remain in good preservation. The decision 
however is of no very great importance in a passage so full 
of beauty, and well capable of either interpretation. 

V. 207. Where some wild jig-tree. To this tree a property 
is attributed (which of course must belong to Other shrubs 
capable of vegetation in such disadvantageous soil) of loosen- 
ing the mortar and destroying the buildings which it cemented. 
Marmora Messalee Jindit caprificus. 

Mart. x. 2. 



v. 217—229. Sat. x. Juvenal. 275 

All Africa was his— for Spain he sighs — "i 

Bounds o'er the Pyrenees! —new conquests rise, v 

And in dim perspective enchant his eyes ! ) 

Nature would vainly to his march oppose 220 

Primaeval Alps and everlasting snows ! 

He bursts her barrier rocks— corrodes her stone — 

Storms all her cliffs— and Italy is won ! 

Ah ! wherefore won ! ' Soldiers, think nothing ours,' 

He cries,' till o'er yon Fanes and ruin'd towers 225 

e Our banners wave — till in those streets abhorr'd, 

4 The vassal Roman greet his Punic lord I' 

O for a Portrait to those features true, 

By which the world that alter' d brow might view, 

V. 222. He bursts, Sfc. It is certain that this exploit dV 
Hannibal's, the corrosion of the rock, is not mentioned by 
Polybius, who has very circumstantially related the history 
of Hannibal's campaigns. The work of Mr. Whitaker is not 
at hand, but it seems not unlikely that this artful General 
should have raised and spread abroad a story of this nature, 
for the mere purpose of intimidating his enemy, by raising 
apprehensions of his astonishing energy and disregard of all 
obstacles ; in which way Livy might have it. 

V. 228. O for a Portrait. No general likeness of 
Hannibal, such as those of distinguished Romans on coins, 
is, I believe, in existence. The ugly Saracen's head in Holyday's 
Translation would make any one exclaim with Juvenal, 
' O qualis fades.' — Perhaps Hannibal thought with Agesilaus, 
that it became the dignity of a great man, to leave to posterity 
the image of his mind and not of his body. x«< rov ju,fv vvo^a,- 
fo$ emovcc (rrr]<rct<rQoti urfecr^STQ. Trj$ Ss ^v^g cvhifofs sifwsTQ 



276 Sat. x. Juvenal. v. 230 — 249. 

When his Getulian brute the Chief bestrode, 230 
The one-eyed Chief, and ruminating rode ! 
And what his end ? — delusive Glory, say, 
Would'st thou not blot that memorable day, 
Which saw thy vanquished Favorite's footsteps bent 
To a Bithynian king's Praetorian tent ? 235 

And there behold the once illustrious Chief 
Waits till he wake, a suppliant for relief! 

Nor sword, nor spear, nor vollied stones shall harm 
The life that fill'd the nations with alarm : 
'Tis thine, O little Ring ! t' avenge the day 240 
And all the blood that blends with Cannae's clay ! — 
Go, Maniac ! go, in glory's phrenzied dream 
Roam o'er the Alps — the Latian schoolboy's theme! 

One world too small the Youth of Pella found ; 
Cramp'd and confin'd within its narrow bound 245 
He chafes as tho' Seripho's flinty chain, 
Or Gyarae, his mighty soul restrain ; 
Yet when arriv'd the long, long look'd-for, day, 
His own the City with her walls of clay ! 

V. 230. When his Getulian brute. This passage is well 
explained by Livy, 1. 22. c. 2. The river Arno at the time of 
Hannibal's descent had overflowed Etruria, and he lost many 
of his men and mueh of his baggage in consequence. ' Ipse, 
ceger oculis, ex verna primum intemperie calores et frigora 
variant e ; Elephanto qui unus superfuerat, quod altius ab 
aqua extaret rectus : vigiliis tandem et nocturno humore palus- 
trique ccelo caput gravante, et quia medendi nee locus nee 
tempus erat, altero oculo capitur.' 

V. 248. Yet token arrived. He next instances in Alexander 



v. 250 — 257. Sat. x. Juvenal. 277 

Behold ! the mighty victor doom'd to die, 250 

Doom'd in a small Sarcophagus to lie ! 
Death, death alone makes thoughtless man confess 
The humbling secret of his littleness ■! 

A wondrous passage once to oar and sail 
(Or trust we ne'er again to Grecian tale) 255 

Huge Athos gave, — but Greece for ever lies, 
And who shall trust her daring rhapsodies ? — 



the vanity of military fame, who, after he had taken possession 
of Babylon, terminated there his ambition and his life. — It is 
needless to waste time on the trite story of Semiramis having 
surrounded her city ' coctilibus muris,' known as it is to all 
who have read the moving ' Tragedy of Pyramus and Thisbe' 
in Ovid. 

In this city, he became, as the Poet tells us, the tenant of a 
Sarcophagus, a stone chest or coffin which had the property, as 
Pliny relates, of destroying the animal remains (hence its 
name, though this was afterwards applied to any stone coffin.) 
From the remarks of Dioscorides, itsgi Atriou AiQov, in which 
he relates that this stone is light, friable, acrid to the taste, of 
caustic properties, which make it fit for application to ulcers, 
having also a saline efflorescence (av9o; dx^u^s,) on the sur- 
face, or exposed part of the stone : may not this have been 
an aluminous clay 1 The quarry is on the sea-shore of Assus, 
a promontory of Troas ; and Galen's hypothesis about the 
efflorescence is, that it is the sea spray, dried by the sun. 

V. 252. Death, death alone. So Pope in those beautiful 
lines, 

O death, all eloquent, you only prove, 

What dust we doat on, when 'tis man we love ? 



278 Sat. x. Juvenal. v. 258 — 273. 

Strew'd was the sea by wondrous art controlPd 
With ships — on floating floors huge chariots roll'd ! 
And some believe the Mede, for lack of wine 260 

Drank rivers dry, where'er he stopp'dto dine! 

So Sostratus, when he has dipp'd his wing 
In cups of inspiration, loves to sing. 

How went he back from Salamis, whose scourge 
The refractory winds would madly urge ! 265 

(The Winds, which ne'er endur'd such stripes before, 
In those vast caverns where confm'd they roar ;.) 
Who o'er that God whose trident shakes the land 
His Fetters threw — but meekly spar'd the Brand ! 
(To such a kind and condescending lord 270 

Gods might be proud their service to afford !) 
How went he back ? one 'rescued bark, his own, 
He steers thro' blood- s tain' d waves, and flies alone ! 



V. 26S. Who o'er that God. Ennosigzeus, swoviyouoc. 
Every body has beard of the ridiculous conduct of Xerxes on 
this occasion, which has, however, been nearly equalled by the 
folly of other monarchs in other countries, (not very unlike to 
it was the sailing of the Invincible Armada,) and finely con- 
trasted by the well known anecdote of Canute, in our own. — 
Juvenal, in the passage just above, 

Quicquid Grcecia mendax 
Andet in Historia — 
could only mean to sneer at their representation of the 
Invasion of Xerxes, which no doubt they did exaggerate — 
' honoris causa.' 



-v. 274—285. Sat. x. Juvenal. 279 

The cumber'd keel moves sullenly and slow, 
And many a buoyant corpse obstructs the prow ! 
Thus with the penalties, their prayers invite, [275 
Is Glory wont her followers to requite. 

' Lengthen life's narrow bounds, ye Gods, I pray, 
c And make the day of death a distant day !' 
From blooming health, from sickness, still arise 280 
These well known vows, familiar to the skies : 
But ah ! how great the pangs, how vast^the care, 
Which Age, before It close, must look to bear ! 
That joyless, sear, unprepossessing face, 
On which a thousand furrow'd lines we trace, 285 



V. 284. That joyless, sear, Sfc. The existence of happy 
old age seems not to have appeared possible to Juvenal, who 
has drawn a very aggravated picture of its sorrows both 
mental and corporeal : indeed, if it were not that Cicero had 
appeared as the champion of declining life, one should incline 
to say, that the philosophy of the ancients was quite unequal 
to suggest any motives of consolation. That of the moderns, 
however, has expressly advocated the autumn, though not the 
winter of life. ' I am now entering,' says Gibbon, ' that period, 
which, as the most agreeable of his long life, was selected by 
the judgment and experience of the sage Fontenelle : his 
choice is approved by the eloquent Historian of Nature, 
(Buffon,) who fixes our moral happiness to the mature season 
in which our passions are supposed to be calmed, our duties 
fulfilled, our ambition satisfied, our fame and fortune estab- 
lished on a solid basis. In private conversation, that great 
and amiable man added the weight of his own experience ; 
and this autumnal felicity might be exemplified by the lives 



280 Sat. x. Juvenal. v. 286 — 287. 

A skin unsightly plough'd with lines profound ! 
Such, where Numidia's forests clothe the ground, 



of Vi'll (lire, Hume, and other men of letters. I am far more 
inclined to embrace than to dispute this comfortable doc- 
trine — but must reluctantly observe, that iivo causes, the 
abbreviation of time, and the failure if hope, will always 
tinge with a browmr shade the evening of life.'' 

Gibbon's Life, conclusion. 
Alas ! tiiis comfortable doctrine is only, it seems, for old men 
of letters : and even to such it appears but to have offered a 
palliative of very moderate efficacy ! The single item of this 
philosophical summary of the comforts of age, which can be 
applicable to the aged in general, is that of ' duties fulfilled' — 
for surely it is notorious that of the passions, some, at least, 
are not rendered weaker; while such as really disappear, 
carry away with them as much, perhaps, of enjoyment as of 
sorrow: — as to the comforts of satisfied ambition let those 
tell who have reaped them ! and for the establishment of fame 
and fortune, they are contingencies which fall but to the lot 
of few. 

The philosophy of the Brachmans furnished better consola- 
tion than this — though still for philosophers ! They saw the 
necessity of looking forward in piace of backward for com- 
fort, and from the light of nature seem to have inferred, that 
death was in some sense a birth into a higher state of existence. 
rov wbv evfiafo fiiov u>s av ax^rjv kuo^bvujv sivar rov h Saratov 
ysveviv si; TON 0NTX1S BION kcli tov BuSa.iy.ova rot; fiKo<ro- 

<dY)(ra<ri. 

Strabo, 1. xv. cited in Butler's Analogy, chap. 1. 

V. 287. Such, where Numidia's forests. The ape swarms 
in Africa : Herodotus mentions a tribe which lives upon the 
flesh of this animal, (iriQr,KO<paysov<ri,) and Strabo relates an 



v. 288 — 299. Sat. x. Juvenal. 281 

Such, on her visage might the grandam ape 
In woods of Tabraca, delight to scrape — 
In youth a sweet diversity we find, 290 

And various loveliness with force combin'd ;, 
But age is all alike j the limbs deny 
To bear their load, the accent seems to die 
Upon the faltering tongue — the scalp is bare, 
And the moist nose of infancy is there ! 295 

His bread the wretch must break with boneless gum- 
So grievous to his dearest friends become, 
That Cossus, — with the will before his eyes — 
Might with disgust be taken by surprise ! — 



adventure of Posidonius, who being cast on the coast of 
Lybia, found himself in the midst of a whole community of 
these entertaining companions, of whom some were nursing, 
some bald, some sick, and some waiting upon them, &c. That 
the face of the ape becomes very much wrinkled is well known : 
Simla quam similis turpissima bestia nobis ! 
V. 298. That Cossus, with the will, Sfc. An admirable 
by-biow at this person, who belonged to the numerous corps 
of ' capt at ores' — though they were sometimes complimented 
with the name of ' vultures.' — Amico tegro aliquis assidet : 
probamus. At hoc si herediiatis causa fg.cil, vultur est, cadaver 
expectat.' Senec. Epist. 95. 

Cujus Vulturis hoc erit cadaver. — Mart. 
Lucian amuses himself as much with the bodily infirmities 
of age, as Juvenal, vTtstri'zvs yovv xoci uVf^r-rs koci svewyjpTS- 

Micyllus et Gallus. 



282 Sat. x. Juvenal. v. 300—306. 



That torpid palate can no longer taste 300 

Or food or wine, — the banquet's joys are past ! 

Love's tender rites in deep oblivion lie, 

Or nature, urg'd in vain, makes no reply, 

And all is cold and sad sterility ! 

Another organ fails— now sing who may 305 

Or strike the chord, he hears no more the lay, 



i 



Some lines of Lord Dorset on the same theme are free from 
this sorry sort of pleasantry. 

" But who had sene him sobbinge howe he stoode 
" Unto himselfe, and howe he would bemone 
" His youth forepast, as though it wrought him good 
" To talke of youth, al were his youth foregone, 
" He would have mused, and mervayled much whereon 
" This wretched Age should life desyre so fayne, 
" And knowes ful wel life doth but length his payne. 

" Crooke-backt he was, tooth-shaken and blere-iyed, 
" Went on three feete, and sometime crept on fower, 
" With old lame bones that ratled by his side, 
" His skalpe all pilde, and he with elde forlore, 
" His withered fist still knocking at deathes dore, 
" Fumbling and driveling, as he draws his breth, 
" For briefe, the shape and messinger of death. 

" And fast by him pale Maladie was plaste, 
" Sore sick in bed, her colour al forgone, 
" Bereft of stomake, savour, and of taste, 
" Ne could she brooke no meat but brothes alone. 
r Her breath corrupt, her keepers every one 

" Abhorring her, her sickenes past ne cure. 

" Detesting phisicke, and all phisickes cure. 



v. 307 — 324. Sat. x. Juvenal. 283 

Not tho' Seleucus' hand awake the strain, 

Not tho' the whole Orchestra's glittering train ! 

It matters not how favorably plac'd 

He sits, who scarce can hear the trumpet's blast, 310 

In whose dull ear the shouting slaves proclaim 

The passing hour and every caller's name ! 

Nor this the whole — the scanty blood, that flows 

Thro' his chill frame, with fever only glows ; 

Of fell Diseases the conspiring crew 315 

Dance round their victim and his life pursue. 

Ask not their names — for I could sooner say 

In Hippia's arms how many lovers lay ; 

How many patients Themison may kill 

In one brief autumn — with unquestion'd skill j 320 

How many ruin'd orphans curse the hour 

That plac'd their every hope in Hirrus' power ; 

How many pillag'd clients, at the name 

Of scoundrel Basilus their wrongs proclaim ; 



V. 317. Ask not their names. This passage has been con- 
tinually imitated by all Satirists, but never with any great 
measure of success. In that part of it which relates to 
Themison, the Poet was not liable to prosecution for libel, for 
Themison lived under Augustus, and his name is put * Pro 
quovis medico.' He was a native of Laodicea, and the 
founder of the Methodie sect. 

In the time of Boileau the parties ran high about the 
virtues and vices of antimony : Guenauld was one of the 
advocates for its employment, to which circumstance he, as 
well as some Hippia of the day, are indebted for their 
immortality. 



284 Sat. x. Juvenal. v. 325 — 348. 

Tall Maura's merciless amours, or those 325 

Hamillus loves, 'twere easier to disclose, 
Or reckon up the mansions and the lands 
"Which bless my once industrious Barber's hands ! 

Stretch'd on the couch, or limping on the crutch, 
Or guarding well the toe that dreads the touch ; 
This, with both orbs quench'd in eternal night, [330 
Envies his purblind friend's faint beam of light : 
These mumble every scrap ; those, with pale lip, 
From cups by other hands supported, sip ; 
This sees the supper, and extending wide 335 

His feeble jaws, he gapes to be supplied, 
Like unfledg'd swallows, whose extended bills 
The parent bird with food she tastes not, fills ! 
But worse than all — the mind, the mind is gone ! 
The names of friends, of servants all unknown ; 340 
Show him with whom he supp'd but yester night, 
He stares with vacant eye — unconscious quite : 
Nay, his own offspring he remembers not, 
And from his Will without design may blot ; 
As Phiale directs !— so much avails 345 

From harlot lips the vapor which exhales ! 
Well practis'd she, and knows her calling well, 
Conn'd o'er at leisure in. the brothel's cell. 



J' aurois plutot compte, combieii dans im printems 
Guenauld, et L'Antimvine ontfait mourir de gens, 
FA combien La-Neveu avant son mariage 
A defois au Public, vendu son pucelage ! 



v. 349 — 368. Sat. x. Juvenal. 285 

But let the mind escape this dreadful doom, 
It must be yours to follow to the tomb 350 

Your valiant Sons, to see the funeral pyre, 
Rais'd for the object of your soul's desire — 
A much-lov'd wife, or brother : yours to mourn, 
O'er the cold ashes of a sister's urn ! 
These penal sorrows age must ever pay, 355 

To lead new funerals forth from day to day ; 
'Midst many griefs, the pains of age to know, 
In mourning weeds and solitary woe ! 

The Pylian king — at least so Homer says — 
Made Ravens jealous of his length of days, 360 
Ages had past ! and now the hoary man 
To count his years on his Right Hand began ! 
' Thrice happy Nestor ! he, when all were gone, 
6 Drank the new wine, and fill'd his cup alone.' 
You call old Nestor happy, nay but wait, 365 

And hear himself lament the laws of fate, 
When at the mounting flame the mourner gaz'd, 
And young Antilochus before him blaz'd. 

V. 349. But let the mind. The whole of this passage is 
extremely tender and beautiful. Neither Ovid, Tibullus, nor 
even Virgil, have any thing more softly and delicately drawn : 
the examples too are finely introduced, although the instance 
of Priam had long been a common-place on the subject of 
the infelicity of age. 

In illustration of the line ' to count his years,' &c. it is 
only necessary to remark that for summing up expeditiously 
numbers under 100, the ancients made use of the left hand, 
from 100 to 200 of the right, after which they reverted again 
to the left. 



286 Sat. x. Juvenal. v. 369—386. 

* Tell me, my friends,' he cries, ' ah tell me why 

6 I still am here, nor merit yet to die, 370 

' Tell me for what unexpiated crime 

e The gods prolong the punishment of time ?' 

In sounds like these the aged Peleus too 

Bewail'd Achilles ravish'd from his view. 

And he who well, by long disasters led, 375 

Might mourn the living Ithacus for dead. — 

The shades of all his sires, had fate been kind, 
With every solemn rite had Priam join'd, 
Then 'midst the dames of Troy, with streaming 

eyes, 
Had Hector join'd his Father's obsequies, 380 

His own Polyxena had led the throng, 
His own Cassandra rais'd the funeral song. — 
Ah ! had he died ere yet his Son design'd 
Those fatal prows, invok'd that lawless wind ! 
What did he live for., say ? O sight abhorr'd, 385 
To see all Asia wasted by the sword, — ■ 

V. 369- Tell me, my friends, he cries. In the same spirit 
is that most exquisite passage in the iEneid, 1. viii. where 
Evander exclaims, 

Si visurus eum vivo et venturus in unum, 
Vitam oro : patiar quemvis durare Labor um. 
Sin aliquem infandum casum Fortuna minaris, 
Nunc o nunc liceat ceudelem abrumpere 

vitam ! 
Dum curce ambiguce, dum spes incertafuturi, 
Dum te, care puer, mea sera et sola volupta-s, 
Amplexu teneo. 



v. 387 — 402. Sat x. Juvenal. 287 

Liv'd, his Tiara laid aside, to wield 

With nerveless arms the Javelin and the Shield : 

To Jove's high altar for protection ran, 

At Jove's high altar fell the wretched man. 390 

So some old steer, unfit for labor now, 

Dismiss'd with scorn from the ungrateful plough, 

His wither' d neck extending to the knife, 

Resigns the wretched remnant of his life. 

So Priam fell—yet by a common lot — 395 

His spouse her hapless lord remembering not 

In canine howlings life's sad remnant past, 

And left the world in brutish guise at last ! 

I haste to Roman themes, nor longer stay 
To name the king of Pontus, nor delay 400 

To tell of him whom Solon bade suspend 
His views of life, till life had reach'd its end. 

V. 396. His spouse her hapless Lord. The story of 
Hecuba after the destruction of her family is, that she was 
transformed into a bitch, and it is impossible not to regret that 
Juvenal should have here introduced it where its absurdity 
takes off not only from the general beauty of the passage, 
but appears as a particular deformity immediately following 
the exquisite lines, 

Ut vetulus Bos 
Qui domini cultris tenue et miser abik collum, Sfc. 

V. 401. To tell of him whom. This sentiment of Solon 
delivered to Croesus, was adopted by many of the GuomiG 
Poets, and by the Greek Tragedians : and was founded of 
course upon observation of the instability of human happi- 
ness, Sr t Xov yag w$ cruvocKQkovQoiyjpsv TAI2 TTXA12, rov aurov 
ETAAIMONA, xauttahiv A0AION s§ ovpev, <ffo\touus XAMAI- 



288 Sat. x. Juvenal, v. 4CS— 410. 

He that in vanquish'd Carthage begg'd his bread, 

Hid in Minturnum's swamp his outlaw'd head, 

And view'd in deep despair a dungeon's wall, 405 

Had life, extended life, to thank for all ! 

Could the wide world, could Rome itself supply, 

Than his, a happier, nobler destiny, 

Had he expir'd in that Teutonic car, 

And breath'd his soul amidst the pomp of war ? 410 



AEONTArivat, rov svSaipova, atfotpa.ivovrss. Arist. Eth. L. I. x.In 
the succeeding chapter, he combats the opinion and shows that 
to be euros toov xclk'jjv xai Sv<rrv^rjij,a,tiov is not the essential of 
happiness, which, as he defines it, consisting in virtuous prin- 
ciple carried into consistent practice, ought to be in great 
measure independent of the casualties of life, these casualties 
affording perpetual occasion for the exercise of the virtuous 
energies in which happiness consists. — 

The sentiment here attributed to Solon is very beautifully 
uttered by the chorus in contemplation of the accumulated 
distresses of CEdipus. 

lu: yzvzou Soofcfjv 

'£1$ Jfcaf lara. xat ro prjftsv 

Zuxrag evagittpw 

T<f ya.% rig avr^ tfAeov, &c. 

CEd.Tyr. 1186. 
V. 410. And breath' d his soul. The poet here runs over 
the Svcrrv^yjixara of Marius : expelled from Rome, by the as- 
cendancy of Sylla, he fled to Minturnum, and concealed him- 
self in the marshes on the bank of the Liris, from his pursu- 
ers who followed him thither : he was betrayed, but none of 
the faction daring to put him to death, he was sent off to 
Africa, and the manner and time of his death are uncertain : 



v. 412 — 419. Sat. x. Juvenal. 289 

Campania, prescient of her favorite's fate, 
Provides a fever to abridge the date 
Of Pompey's chequer'd life — her towns assail 
The gods with ceaseless prayers ; the prayers pre- 
vail! 415 
Ah treacherous gift ! Rome's fortune and his own 
ReseiVd their victim, not for death alone : 
And yet Cethegus, Lentulus, had lain, 
Whole and untouch'd by insult 'midst the slain, 

part of this melancholy tale is related in very interesting lan- 
guage by Patereulus. 

Marias post sextum consulatum annoque septuagesimOs, 
nydus, ac limo obrutus, oculis tantummodo ei naribus eminen- 
tlbus, extr actus arundineto — inject o in collum loro in carcerem 
Minturnensium perductus est, ad quern interficiendum missus 
cum gladio servus publicus, natione Germanus, ut agnovit 
Murium magno ejulatu expromenti indignationem casus tanti 
viri abjecto gladio profugit e carcere. Turn cive? — instructum 
eum viatico, collataque veste, in navem imposuerunt ; at ille — 
cursum in Africam direxit ; inopemque vitam in tugurio rut- 
narum Carthaginiensium toleravit. 

See also Plutarch's Life of Marias, and Otway's Life and 
death of C. Marius. 

V. 412. Campania prescient , fyc. The whole passage in 
Patereulus is so exactly similar, that Juvenal may be reason- 
ably supposed to have had it in his view. 

Qui, si ante biennium, quam ad arma itam est — gravissimd 
tentatus valetudine decessisset in Campania (quo quidem tem- 
pore, universa Italia vota pro salute ejus, primo omnium civium, 
suscepit,) defuisset fortuncB destruendi ejus locus ; et quam 
apud superos habuerat magnitudinem, illibatam detulisset ad 
inferos. Veil. Paterc. Hist. L. ii. 48- 

Juv. T 



290 Sat. x. Juvenal. v. 420 — 439. 

Nor to the axe would injur'd Rome resign, 420 
The breathless corpse of traitor Catiline ! 

The anxious mother breathes an ardent prayer 
To Venus, that her daughters may be fair ; 
In gentler whispers supplicates the fane, 
In favor of her boys — i and why restrain, 425 

' What nature prompts ? Latona will survey 
c Her Dian's charms with pride, as Poets say.' 
True ■! but Lucretia's fate forbids the prayer 
Of those, who like Lucretia would be fair. 
Would not Virginia, think'st thou, gladly take 430 
A hump like Rutila's for safety's sake ? 
Of this be sure, a thousand fears alloy, 
For his too comely son, a parent's joy j 
What tho' the stern and stately discipline 
Of Sabine morals in thy dwelling shine, 435 

Virtue and beauty are not often known 
To make the same distinguish^ youth their own S 

But let the mind be pure, and let the cheek, 
With modest tinge, most eloquently speak. 



V. 420. Nor to the axe. The antients held in great abhor- 
rence the mutilation of the body after death : hence Shake- 
speare with great propriety puts the sentiment into the mouth 
of Brutus. 

Let us be Sacrificers, but not Butchers, Caius, 
Let's kill him boldly, but not wrathfully ; 
Let's carve him as a dish fit for the Gods, 
Not hew him as a carcase for the hounds ! — 



v. 440—468. Sat. x. Juvenal. 291 



s 



(What more could nature give, — more powerful 
far, 440 

Than all our vigilance and all our care :) 
To blast their manhood — let it not be told, 
Unblushing villainy will dare to hold 
Before parental eyes the damning gold ! 
But ne'er did wanton tyrant yet deny 445 

To ugliness its full security ; 
Nero himself ne'er harbour'd foul designs, 
On tumid paunches, or distorted loins. 
He that had bandy legs was ever free, 
And safely slept in strumous puberty. 450 

Go now ! rejoice ! none of these perils wait 
Thy graceful youth :-— arriv'd at man's estate, 
Not these, but greater far — he shall become, 
Ere it be long, th' Adulterer of Rome — 
Shall live in terror of the furious blow, 455 

Which vengeance, and the husband, oft bestow. 
More fortunate than Mars he scarce shall be, 
Nor quite escape the Noose of destiny ; 
The dagger's desperate plunge — the bloody thong — 
Will scarce appease the pang, or purge the wrong. 
But he perhaps, thy fair and happy son, [460 

Of some kind dame the lov'd Endymion, 
Is safe from all : yet may there come a day, 
When he shall be Servilia's — who can pay — 
Who all she has, for this will gladly sell ; 465 

Ne'er against lust did vanity rebel !— 
Shall Appia, shall Catulla, e'er be crost, 
Or thwart their lewdness at whatever cost ? 



292 Sat. x. Juvenal, v. 469 — 48a 

e But beauty injures the corrupt alone j* 

Nay ! ask Hippolytus, Bellerophon : 470 

Fir'd at the cold refusal, Phaedra burns ! 

With quicker throb, the fervid stream returns : 

Glows Sthenobasa with an equal flame, 

A mighty conflict ! anger, lust, and shame ! 

Then, then indeed, is all the woman tried, 475 

When hope confounded points the sting of pride ! 

Come ! your advice for one to Caesar's bed, 
By Caesar's daring wife reluctant led. 
Best of the good, and noblest of the great, 
Lewd Messalina's glance decides his fate ! 480 



V. 470. Nay ! ask Hippolytus. The story of Phaedra and 
Hippolytus is one of those which affords such obvious matter 
for the drama, that it has been ever a particular favorite with 
the Tragic poet, the subject of one of the finest plays in all 
antiquity, and of what has been considered (unjustly I think) 
as the chef d'ecuvre of Racine. For Bellerophon, he also was 
solicited by an incontinent female, 

xcu7r?QL$iri <pt?.otr / T'i [j,iyYj[j,eva,i. 

The Lady was Antea, the wife of Praetus, who, on being re- 
pulsed, excited her husband, as usual, by a fabricated story to 
destroy his guest. Horn. 11. vi. 150. 

V. 477. Come ! your advice. Juvenal here relates at some 
length the last enormity of the life of Messalina, which is cir- 
cumstantially detailed by Tacitus. Ann. xi. 5. 12. The ad- 
venture terminated in the death of both parties ; indeed it 
was conducted with such abominable publicity, and disregard 
of decency, that notwithstanding the portentous hebetude of 
the intellects of Claudius, one would think, they threw them- 
selves expressly into the way of unavoidable destruction. 



v. 481—510. Sat. x. Juvenal. 293 

In the bright flammeum of the bride array'd, 

She bids the couch be dress'd, the dower be paid : 

Bids Augurs come to auspicate the rite, 

In order all, full in the public sight ! 

Your choice ? and first, be sure, if you deny, 485 

Before the evening lamps 'tis yours to die : 

Consent, and claim a somewhat longer space, 

Till the dull prince discern his own disgrace, 

Till on his ears the loud dishonor fall ; 

Long since in every street discuss'd by all : 490 

From fate then wouldst thou seek a short reprieve. 

Compliance gains it, yet for truth receive, 

That neck of thine, howe'er thou shalt decide, 

So lov'd ! so fair ! the sword shall soon divide. 

What then, does life supply no object, none ; 495 
Is there no good to ask, no ill to shun ? 
Nay, but do thou permit the Gods to choose, 
What it is meet to grant, and what refuse, 
Giving whate'er is good, they oft deny 
What only seems so, to our erring eye ; 500 

Dear to himself is man, but far more dear 
To them who mark how passion wins his ear ; 
A wife, an home, and sweet domestic peace, 
These boons he seeks with pray'rs that never cease ; 
Tltei/, to whose altars and whose shrines he runs, 
Discern the future wife, the future sons ! [505 

Yet, that thou may'st not want a ready prayer. 
When the slain victim tells thy pious care, 
Ask, that to health of body may be join'd, 
That equal blessing, sanity of mind : 510 



294 Sat x. Juvenal. v. 51 1—524. 

'Gainst which life's various cares in vain conspire, 

And strange "alike to anger and desire ; 

Which views the close of life, from terrors free, 

As a kind boon, Nature ! bestow'd by thee : 

Which would the soft Assyrian's down resign, 515 

All his voluptuous nights, and all his wine, 

For brave and noble darings ! Mortal, learn, 

The boon of bliss thyself alone can'st earn ; 

To tranquil life one only path invites, 

Where Virtue leads her pilgrim and requites ; 520 

No more a Goddess, were thy votaries wise, 

Whose fond delusion lifts thee to the skies, 

Thy place in Heaven, O Fortune ! we bestow, 

Divine we call thee ; and we make thee so ! 



Argument. 



This Satire, like the fifth, is substantially devoted to one 
and the same object, though occasional digressions, after 
the manner of the Satirist, occur in both. The present, 
however, is more happily relieved by the description of 
his own simplicity of living, and much embellished by a 
very beautiful descant on the good old times, v, 77- But 
let us not forget in reading this Satire, that the vice 
which it principally chastises, (jluKuky^ kch aa-0svou<njj Tgv<p-r) 
tyvxyg e'/ridvpriiAUTct, is far from having made inconsiderable 
progress on our own shores. This too was one of the 
indulgences imputed to Monachism, as an excellent 
epigram on the stately kitchen of Glastonbury, which 
remains alone amidst the ruins of the Fane, pleasantly 
commemorates. 

Templa ruunt et sacra Dei, sed tanta palati 
Cur a fiat Monachis, tula Culina manet. 

Their Kitchen stands, their ruin'd Altars nod ; 
The reason's plain — their belly was their God ! 



Q96 



PERSONS AND PLACES 

MENTIONED IN THE SATIRE. 



As for the Persons and Places in this Satire, there arc 
none which require any particular mention, the allusions 
being few and obvious. I should have mentioned above, 
a long epigram of Martial which is almost the model of 
this Satire : it is on several accounts worth consulting. 

Nuntiat octavam Pharia sua turba juvencce. 

* L. X. 48. 



»attre xi. 



If Atticus the sumptuous feast prepare, 
'Tis well — for Atticus the charge can bear ; 
Madness in Rutilus ! the very crowd 
At a distrest Apicius laugh aloud. 
Baths, porches, taverns with his follies teem, 5 

The street's, the public walk's, eternal theme ; 
"Who fill'd with youth's prime vigor, with the tide 
Of fervid health, his country's claims denied. 
Forc'd by no tribune, yet alas ! by none 
Restrain' d — his wealth in mad profusion gone, 10 

V. 9. Forc'd by no tribune. The power of compelling in- 
dividuals to the combats of the amphitheatre certainly did 
not belong to this officer, as such ; to understand the passage,, 
we must recollect that the Tribunitia potestas was affected by 
the Emperors, on whose coins it always appears equally with 
the title of Pont. Maxim. Juvenal also, in this place, 
exposes that most culpable indifference to the honor of the 
nobility, which it should have been the most obvious wisdom 
in the head of the state to have protected : a consideration, 
which should have led the Emperors to prohibit what some 
of them, in fact, encouraged, and some commanded. 



298 Sat. xi. Juvenal. v. 11 — 30. 

Flies to the Fencer's much frequented school, 
Its idiom learns, and cons each pompous rule. 
Delusion strange ! of bankrupts not a few, 
Whom baffled creditors in vain pursue, 
Amidst the crowds who merely live to eat, 15 

Still by the market and the stall they meet ! 
Through the flaw'd wall tho' light already shine, 
Tho' ruin stare them in the face, they dine ! 
Dine ! why they ransack every element, 
Untried, unthought of, dainties to invent ; 20 

Price moves them not, profusion seems their boast, 
And that the most esteem' d which costs the most. 
The last remains of plate are still in store, 
The glutton's sure resource for one day more ; 
These gone, the honors of the house amerc'd, 25 
He sells his father's bust— but breaks it first ! 
And tho' twice only serv'd on humble clay, 
They'd spend a knight's estate the treat to pay : 
Thus by progressive steps they soon repair [30 
To the hir'd swordsman's coarse and humble fare. 



V. 29. Thus by progressive steps. 
Sic veniunt ad miscellanea ludi. 

The meaning of this expression has been very variously 
interpreted, but the better authorities concur in giving it the 
sense expressed above ; and the general meaning of the pas- 
sage is not that by mere expense they are reduced to want, 
(which would be flat) but that by a shameful profligacy in a par- 



v. 31-— 46. Sat. xi. Juvenal. 299 

Who gives the feast ? here should the question 
lie. 
J Tis this makes all the fame or infamy ; 
In Rutilus mere folly and pretence, 
In rich Ventidius, magnificence ! 
In trifles learn'd, him may I well despise, 35 

Who tells how high the peaks of Atlas rise, 
Yet what concerns him more will ne'er discern, 
Nor between Chest and Purse the difference learn. 
Man, know thyself ; O precept most divine ! — ■ 
Deep treasur'd in thy memory make it thine, 40 
Fix and revolve it oft, within thy breast, 
Whether ambitious dreams disturb thy rest, 
Whether to shine in senates thou aspire, 
Or court the name of husband and of sire. 
Thersites* self would feel some tinge of shame 45 
To ask those arms Ulysses fear'd to claim. 



ticular article, they gradually come to the coarsest and the 
worst kind of it, or that gluttony leads to famine. 

V. 31. Who gives the feast ? Juvenal makes a very natural 
transition, from what is becoming in regard to splendor and 
hospitality, to the same consideration on other subjects. In 
this person these indulgences are commendable, in that they 
assume a quite opposite character from their inconsistency 
with the situation of the individual. Aristotle had given to 
display of this kind (when exercised, of course, by persons 
who could consistently exercise it,) a place among the vir- 
tues, under the imposing name of MsyccXoir^irsiix.. apg'rtj sv 
SairccvYj^as-i psysQovg tfonj-njoj. — Mtx^o^/v^ix §s xoci Mix^q- 
ifgeiteia rovvxvrtov. 



300 Sat. xi. Juvenal. v. 47 — 66. 

Some cause of doubt and peril would'st defend, 
To nature's gentle intimations lend 
A willing ear, and resolutely ask 
If thine be talents equal to the task ; 50 

Canst thou appease that restless multitude 
By thy impassion'd eloquence subdued ? 
Like Curtius — Matho — canst thou merely roar, 
Or glows thy breast with all the orator ? 
Guage thine own depth — by just admeasurement 
Learn of thy powers the value and extent ; \_55 
In things, or great, or small, these powers respect, 
E'en in the purchase of a fish, reflect ! 
Nor think of Mullets, if thy purse deny 
One scanty dish of Gudgeons to supply. 60 

Thy thirst more urgent, as thy cruise grows low, 
O what resource is thine from coming woe ! 
All that thy frugal father hoarded, see 
Merg'd in the deep abyss of gluttony ! 
That deep abyss which every Kind can hold, 65 
Lands, cattle, contracts, houses, silver, gold ! 



V. 53. Like Curtius, Matho. Probably the Curtius Mon- 
tanus mentioned in Satire IV. and certainly the same Matho 
who occurs in (he first Satire. Juvenal gives them the name 
of Buccce,_ a term of contempt, expressive of mere noise : it 
is applied Sat. III. to the trumpeters of the show: but with- 
out a metaphor. 

Notceque per oppida Btieae. 

V. 6.5. That deep abyss, Sj'c. The original is here remark^ 
ably expressive, and highly satirical : 



v. 67 — 76. Sat. xi. Juvenal. 301 

Last quits the ring our humbled spendthrift's hand. 

And hapless Pollio takes the beggar's stand ! 

Yet fears not luxury an early tomb ; 

Its just alarms, are age, and want to come ! 70 

Mark now the steps of ruin— first they spend 

All but the whole, before the fools that lend, 

And when a scanty sum, — I know not what — 

Remains, and he that lent despairs of that, 

The bankrupt takes the hint and wisely flies 15 

To Ostia, or conceal'd in Baise lies ; 



, ■ventrem, fcetieris atque 

Argent I gravis, et pecorum, agrommque capacem ! 
What follows about Pollio, who sells his ring and then begs 
digito nudo, does not appear to be allusive to any particular 
story then current ; nor is it known who this Pollio was. 

V. 75. The Banlcrirpt, 3,'c. A difficulty adheres to 
this passage, and the text varies in different editions : some 
preferring Ostrea, to Ostia, as more in the general ten- 
dency of the passage. It. seems, however, rather incon- 
sistent to send the spendthrift bankrupt to a place so near to 
Rome, and so well known as Baiue ; whereas it was his busi- 
ness to avoid a rencontre with his creditors. Had it not 
been for the express mention of this last favorite and luxu- 
rious retreat, I should have concluded Ostia (at the mouth of 
the Tiber— Gravesend,) to have been the right reading, and 
synonimous with embarkation and flight : neither do I pretend 
to explain what is meant by the line almost immediately fol- 
lowing, where he says, that the only grief these persons feel, 
arises from the necessity of missing the Circus for one year, 
Caruisse anno Circensibus una. 



302 Sat. xi. Juvenal. v. 77 — 9<X 

Rome 'tis to them as easy to resign, 

As quit Suburra for the Esquiline. 

Or if a few the exile's fate deplore, 

'Tis that the circus he frequent no more ! 80 

Alas, no tinge of honest blood remains, 

The harden'd front no warm suffusion stains ; 

Shame hastens to depart from Rome, and few 

Seek to delay her exit, or pursue ! 

To thee, O Persicus, this day shall tell 85 

Whether I truly love what sounds so well : 
Or cant of herbs and water from the spring, 
And call for pottage — which they dare not bring : 
A poor Evander to my promis'd guest, 
And like Evander in my inmate blest, 90 



As if the lapse of such a period could either invalidate the 
rights of the creditor, or restore the bankrupt to a condition 
of making restitution. 

V. 88. And call for pottage. The mess, which occurs 
several times in Juvenal, under the name of Pultes, was the 
ancient food of the Romans. It was merely boiled flour, 
to which, in after- times, they added eggs and honey. In 
this passage another allusion is made to the despicable con- 
duct of some of the Roman entertainments, which must have 
been gross indeed, since Juvenal thought the subject deserv- 
ing of an entire Satire; for without doubt, the fifth Satire is 
more levelled at the insolence of the host who inflicts, than 
of the Parasite who endures. 
V. 89. A poor Evander. 

. Dum tecta subibant, 

Pauperis Evandri. 



v. 91—92. Sat. xi. Juvenal. 303 

Come as to him the good Tyrinthius came, 
Or he to heaven who held an equal claim, 



An allusion to that most beautiful passage in the JRn. Lib. S. 
m which iEneas and his followers 

resort, 
Where poor Evander kept his country court ; 
They view'd the ground of Rome's litigious hall, 
(Once oxen low'd where now the lawyers bawl) 
Then stooping thro' the narrow gates they press 'd, &c. 

Dry den's Virgil 
Tyrinthius was a name of Hercules, from Tyrintha a city 
of Peloponesus : he had also been entertained by Evander. 

./Eneas disappeared and was supposed to be drowned. 
Niimici unda ; and Hercules, unable to endure the torments of 
the poisoned robe, presented to him by Dejanira, threw himself 
into a fire on mount GEta, from which exit Juvenal calls him 
Flammis ad sidera missus. 
In Sophocles this hero causes himself to be thrown into the 
pile which he directs Hyllus to raise for that purpose, to whom, 
having first exacted an unconditional promise of obedience, he 
gives the following commands, 

EvroLuQa wv y^pv\ Tovpov e^xguvrx its 
crw/x' auTc^sioa xxi aw clj^grj^eij <£*X«v, 

xsipxvtx, ttoAAov ffxpcrtv' exreju-ovS' 6/AOy 
aypjov ehaiov, <ru>px Tovpov spfiuhsiv 
%ui 7[svxivr)$ KufiovTU A«jU,7nxSo£ ashxg 
Ti^crxi. 

Traehin.v. 11 95. 

To which passage I subjoin another in further illustration 
of the original. 

For since by promise thou'rt my guest, I'll be, 
Evander : thou Tyrinthius to me : 



SO 4 Sat. xr. Juvenal. v. 93 — 114. 

And 'midst the stars an equal honor found, 

Tho' this was wrapt in flames, and that was drown'd. 

Hear now what dainties thy arrival wait, 95 

Which ne'er past muster at the market gate. 
Know first, in Tibur's richest meadows feeds 
A fatten'd kid, which at thy coming bleeds. 
Whose teeth ne'er champ'd the herb, nor crush'd 

the shoots, 
Which spring around the humid Osier's roots. 100 
More full of milk than blood— our hills around 
With store of wild asparagus abound, 
My bailiff's dame, he?* distaff thrown aside, 
Shall cull the dainty from the mountain's side ; 
Eggs large and white, they bring us every day, 110 
Warm from the recent nest of twisted hay ; 
Next, tender pullets the repast shall join, 
And grapes preserv'd, but fresh as from the vine, 
Apples, which with Picenum's might compare, 
Shall meet the Signian and the Syrian pear, 110 
And now, from the crude juice of Autumn free, 
Eat, for thou may'st, with full impunity. 

Senates, become less frugal than before, 
Still sought no better feast in days of yore. 



Or that less guest (yet Venus was his mother,) 
Water sent one to heaven, and Fire the other. 

Holy day. 
V. 113. Senates, become less frugal. The picture which 
Juvenal here so beautifully draws of antient times, and many 



125) 



v.- 115—129. Sat. xi. Juvenal. SOS 

From his small glebe when Curius would retire, 

To seethe his pottage o'er a scanty fire. [115 

The earth's cheap produce then their only fare, 

Which fetter'd felons now would scorn to share, 

Remembering well where on the paps of swine 

Hot from the cauldron they were wont to dine. 1 20 

The flitch suspended high in slender crate 

Was once preserv'd apart for days of state. 

Bacon was then esteem'd a birth-day treat, 

And if a victim chanc'd to furnish meat, 

Then was the fulness of the feast complete ! 

And they who councils, and who camps, had sway'd, 

In honor's purple garb the thrice array'd, 

For feasts like these would quit the mountain's soil, 

An hour abridg'd from customary toil ! 



others in which he is in the be:>t sense, e Laudator 'temporis 
acti,' fully develope the character of his mind, which evidently, 
amidst the shocking scenes he was compelled to describe, and 
to paint in strong colors, delighted to repose on the simplicity 
of ancient times, and to cherish the memory of the illustrious 
persons connected with them. 

V. 119- Remembering ivcll tvhere, fyc. The taste of the 
Romans, in several of their dishes, was not a little extraordinary. 
The article here presented would be none of the most attrac- 
tive, hut it is nothing when compared with what is set down 
below, and what appears from unquestionable authority to 
have been cumbered with their delicacies ! 

Vulva suilia in ddiciis erat Romanis et magis quidem ejec- 
titia, £%fi<j\i[XQs prjTga sx(3o\a.8os, ejecto per abortum parlu 
quam porcaria, fyc. Ruperti, Plin. vjii. 51. ix. 37- 
Juv, U 



306 Sat. xi. Juvenal. v. 130 — 139, 

A Cato's name, a Scaurus, Fabius, then 130 

With deepest awe inspir'd their countrymen, 
And e'en the censor's dignity would fear 
Of his own colleague the rebuke severe ; 
None 'midst his graver cares allow'd to dwell 
The foreign Tortoise and that clouded shell, 135 
Which future times were destin'd to employ, 
To build rare Couches for the Sons of Troy ! 
The brazen frontlet of th' uncurtain'd bed 
Shew'd the rude sculpture of an ass's head ; 



V. 135. The foreign Tortoise. Ivory and the shell of the 
Tortoise were so much valued by the Romans, as to equal the 
precious metals in estimation. The introduction of the latter 
substance is recorded by Pliny. 

Testudinum putamina secure in laminas, lectosque et reposi- 
taria his vest ire, Carbilius Pollio instituit, prodigiet sagacis 
ad Luomriee instrumentu ingenii. 

A curious passage from Seneca seems to show that they 
had an art of staining Tortoise-shell. Video elaboratam 
scrupulosa distinction testudinem, et fcedissimorum pigerri- 
morumque animalium testas, ingentibus pretiis emptas, in 
quibus ilia ipsa qua: placet varietas sicblitis medicamentis in 
similitudinem veri coloratur. De Benef. vu. 9. 

V. 138. The brazen frontlet of, S?c. Some copies, it 
seems, have vite coronati, in place of vile, &c. and Ferrarius 
shows from Hyginus, that the ass's head, crowned with vine 
leaves, was a common provincial ornament, the reason of this 
honor being, ' that this sagacious animal found out the sweet- 
ness of the grape, and gave the hint to mankind.' 

I think that the interpretation of the passage cited by 
Holyday, from Scoppa, is far better, viz. that according to 



v. 140—153. Sat. xi* Juvenal, SO? 

The Soldier then, if cities overthrown 140 

Had made some vase of fairest form his own, 
As yet untaught to prize the arts of peace, 
Shattered the high- wrought workmanship of Greece, 
That with the glittering fragments he might deck 
His much-delighted Charger's stately neck ; 145 
Or counted that his helmet might display, 
Bought with the spoils his valor earn'd to-day, 
The pictur'd story of Rome's infant state, 
The wolf grown gentle, such the will of Fate, 
The twin Quirini, in the cavern's shade, 150 

And Mars, their sire, with spear and shield array'd. 

Then the resplendent metal hardly known, 
On arms their scanty store of silver shone ; 



an Etrurian superstition, the skull of an ass protected the 
fields and vineyards from blights — this practice resting on the 
classical authority of Palladius. Item equce calvarice, sed non 
virginis intra hortum ponenda est, vel potius asiuse. Cre- 
dardur enim sua presentia fecundare quae spectant. The 
couch or bed is described in this passage, nudo latere, with 
no back or side, a mere bench. 

V. 149. The wolf grown gentle. This ccelatura iis familiar 
to every one, 

Fecerat et viridi fectam Mavortis in antra 
Procubuisse Lupam : geminosque kuic libera circum 
Ludere pendmtes pueros et lambere matrem 
Impavidos : illam tereti cervice reflexam 

MULCERE ALTERNOS ET CORPORA FINGERE LINGUA. 

Virg. viii. 630. 
It would be scarcely possible to point out a passage more 
full of spirit than that which led to this Note, beginning. 



308 Sat xi. Juvenal. v. 154 — 167. 

Flour form'd their food, on Tuscan clay they ate ! — • 
Ah happy swains ! Ah times thrice fortunate ! 155 
Temples inspir'd a reverence more profound, 
'Twas then the midnight voice in solemn sound, 
Ere yet the Gaul arriv'd from ocean's shore, 
With kind alarm bade Rome to sleep no more. 
Then in prophetic strains th' eternal powers 1 60 
Kept anxious vigils for these walls of ours, 
And Jove himself the fates of Rome controll'd, 
Jove wrought from clay ! nor mock'd as yet with 
gold! 
Those times, those simple times, no tables knew, 
Save of the wood which our own forests grew : 165 
If some old chesnut, which the blast had borne 
For many an age, from the hill's side was torn, 



' lunc radis et Gretas,' on a part of which Dusaulx demands 
--and it is quite the interrogation of a modern reviewer, 
— * si le soldat ttait assez grassier pour etre insensible aux 
ttrts de la Greee, pouvoit il s' interisser beaucoup aux arts du 
Latium, en supposant qu'ils existassmt V He, however, says 
something afterwards about Poets claiming exemption from 
cross-examinations of this kind — a consideration which would 
have saved the Note. 

V. 157. Then, the midnight voice. 

' Templortun qtwque majestas prcesentior.' 

This story is related by Livy and by Plutarch, (Life of Ca- 
millus.) Marcus Ceditius was addressed, as he walked along 
the street at midnight, by a voice which said to him, ' Mar- 
cus Ceditius, make haste to the Tribunes before day-break, 
and tell them to expect the Gauls.' He took the hint, and 
so did the Tribunes. 



v. 168 — 179. .Sat. xi. Juvenal. 309 

That tree supplied, hewn from its ample stem, 

A table, unadorn'd, but priz'd by them. 

Now from the banquet the fastidious guest 1 70 

Will sourly turn,— ^-his meats have lost their zest, 

His wines are flat, their smell the roses lose, 

Unless on burnish' d ivory frame he views 

The costly circles, and with teeth display'd 

A grinning Pard beneath the board be laid ; 175 

Wrought from the tusks, Syenes' valued store, 

By the swart Indian gather'd, or the Moor, 

In Nabath's trackless forest where the beast 

Drops his huge burthen, by the weight opprest. 



V. 178. In Nabath's trackless forest. ' Ivory was usually 
brought from ^Ethiopia. We may farther note, that the Poet 
in his description of the Arabian elephant, says, that when 
his teeth are grown too big he breaks them off; which he 
does, as some relate, by striking them into the ground or a 
tree, when he is pursued in saltu Nabathceo ; Arabia being 
called here Mabathaea from Nabath or Nebaioth, the eldest 
son of Israel.' — Holiday. This story of the huge elephant 
making himself more alert and nimble by breaking off a few 
pounds of ivory, is good for nothing — but a note. 

But the elephant, it seems, does shed his tusks, nimios 
capitique graves, as the stag does his horns, which, if true, is 
the explanation of the passage. ' The natives of Africa assure 
us, that they find the greatest part of it (ivory) in their 
forests ; nor would (say they) the teeth of an elephant recom- 
pense them for the trouble and danger of killing it. Not- 
withstanding, the elephants, which are tamed by man, are 
never known to shed their tusks.' 

Goldsmith's An, Mat. v. ii, 



310 Sat. xi. Juvenal, v. 180—197,. 

These, these alone, (for silver's out of date,) 180 

Excite the bile, and appetite create. 

Guests so obliging may I never see 

Who at my household sneer, and pity me j 

For not an ounce of ivory have I, 

No, not a counter, not a single die : 1 85 

The handles of my knives are only horn, 

Yet may the flavor of my meats be born ; 

Tastes not one dish the worse, nor yet I ween, 

Less bright the blade appears, the edge less keen. 

No Carver's affectations will you see, 190 

Of Trypherus no scholar lives with me, 

Whose pupils, with blunt knife and pompous air, 

Slice down the wooden boar, the kid, the hare ; 

His matchless art the Oryx and Gazelle, 

And huge Flamingo, oft dismember 'd tell, 195 

While through the clattering feast he goes his rounds* 

And the elm banquet thro* Suburra sounds ! 

V. 191. Of Trypherus no Scholar. Trypherus, most 
likely a feigned name, rgvftfo$. We have already had occa- 
sion to notice the Roman Schools, in which the art of carving 
was taught on wooden models. A bill of fare follows, of 
which the items are most untractable for a translator : 

No rare 
Carver I have, chief of the school of fare 
-Train'd up by Trypherus the learned, who 
Carves large sow teats, th' hare, boar, the white- breech too, 
The Scythian pheasant, the huge crimson wing, 

And the Getulian goat. 

Holyday. 



v. 198 — 217. Sat. xi. Juvenal. Sll 

My rustic lad, with no such problems tried, 
A pullet's wing would awkwardly divide. 
With prompt attention but with hands untaught, 200 
He'll bring you cups of cheap material wrought ; 
No Phrygian youth within my walls is seen, 
No shivering Lycianwith dejected mien! — 
Our Latin tongue must make your pleasures known., 
He speaks no other language than his own. 205 
That is my Shepherds son ; my Herdsman's this, 
Oft he recals his mother's parting kiss, 
His Cottage-Home sighs once again to view, 
And the dear kids whose every face he knew ! 
He bears an honest brow, an artless face, 210 

Ting'd with the modest bloom of genuine grace, 
Such bashful air might well those youths become, 
Who proudly wear the purple garb of Rome. 
The wine he brings you on the hills was made, 
Beneath the brow of which his childhood play'd. 215 
Expect no Spanish girls with kindling glance 
To thread the mazes of the prurient dance, 



V. 21 6. Expect no Spanish Girls. Two kinds of applause 
are mentioned in Suetonius (Nero) one per bombos — the other 
probably of the same kind with the testatum crepitus of 
Juvenal. They used a sort of crotalum or rattle, not im- 
probably the castanet still peculiar to Spain. But I leave 
every one, as Holyday says, * to the ability and pleasure 
of his own judgment.' * Cadiz, in Spain/ says the same 



812 Sat. xi. Juvenal. v. 218 — 229. 

Those acrid nettles, which anew excite 

The feeble calls of perish'd appetite ! 

His be the privilege these arts to learn, 220 

From which e'en brothels with disgust would turn, 

And robeless harlots use not— let him view 

Lust's every art, and learn its Idiom too, 

Who daily stains his polish'd orbs with wine, 

Whose marble pavements with excesses shine ! 225 

If vile plebeians dare to game or whore, 

What can excite one's indignation more ? 

But in the rich, reprov'd by gentler name 

Of * gay' and ' lively', is the vice the same ? 



author, ' did ia those times afford to the Romans many im- 
pudent and notorious harlots.' 

V. 224. Who daily stains his polish'd orbs, §c. The 
quantity and the quality of what has been not only written 
but printed on this line, 

Qui Lacedmnonium Pytismate lubricat orhem, 

is truly marvellous. It probably alludes to the filthy rc f 
mains of an intemperate banquet— a tavern table after a 
public dinner. An opposition perhaps is intended in thq 
terms employed, so as to convey this sense, that the beautiful 
inlaid marble tables (the marble of Taenarus, being prized for 
this use — hgnce LacedcEmonium orbem) were all soiled and 
disfigured by the excesses of the guests. However, I 
have given a still more general sense to a line, on M'hich 
the commentators have been very blameably and abomi- 
nably particular ; the general sense being all the while quite 
obvious. 



v. 230—244. Sat. xi. Juvenal. 3W 



s 



Far other sports our banquet boasts to-day, 230 
We'll hear the Iliad, or that other Lay 
Which holds in deep suspense the dubious bay. 

But come, and since the livelong day is ours, 
To ease and friendship give the fleeting hours 5 
Talk not of bonds, nor tell me how at night 235 
Thy spouse returns, who left thee ere 'twas light, 
With garments discompos'd, with glowing face, 
And all the symptoms of thy sad disgrace ! 
Before my threshold, all that gives thee pain 
Dismiss— thy house and all the servile train, 240 
Whate'er they break or steal — but most dismiss 
The theme of thankless friends, on days like this, 

You'll gladly lose Rome's aggravated din. 
To-day the Megalesian games begin ; 



V. 23 1 . We'll hear the Iliad. There is a time for all 
filings, and this promise of recitation at dinner would now be 
better left out of the card. What would the reader think of 
being threatened with Milton at a social tele a tete meeting 
with a friend ? They must have had very small resources to 
require, and very great patience to endure it, especially with 
the additional chance of an indifferent reader. 

Quid refert tales versus qua voce legantur. 

V. 243. Youll gladly lose. The Megalesian Games 
'{aito Tytf psyakris pjrfs;) were instituted in honor of Cybele, 
' called also Berecynthia, Dindymene,' who was originally 
worshipped at Ida, in Phrygia, but fetched to Rome on the 
authority of the Sybilline books, when Hannibal was in Italy. 



314 Sat. xi. Juvenal, v. 245 — 258. 

There the horse-ruin'd Praetor sits on high 245 

As if in triumph for a victory ! 

And (no offence to that unnumber'd train) 

All Rome to-day that Circus will contain. 

Hark ! those ear-rending shouts ! the pause between ! 

Oh ! I predict the triumph of (j the Green* — 250 

Were it not so, and should the favorite yield, 

Distraction more than that of Cannae's field, 

Our Consuls in the dust, our Fame disgrac'd, 

In each desponding visage might be trac'd ! 

Well ! be it theirs to view the splendid sight, 255 

The youths whom wagers bold and shouts delight. 

Let the gay nymph and let the matron there, 

The sober matron, with her lord repair. 



The Praetor, in most of the editions, is called Prado cabal- 
forum — parutm apte. Preeda, the excellent alteration of 
Gronovius, is adopted in the edition of Ruperti. Juvenal 
styles this officer, * The Victim of Horses,' for these, of 
course, would form the most heavy objects of the expense 
incurred by that magistracy. 

V. 250. Oh, J predict the triumph. Juvenal here sharply 
reproves the intense ardor of the Romans for the horse-races 
of the Circus; he calls the livery pannus, in contempt : from 
the rest of the passage it would seem, thixt the ' clamor et 
Giidax sponsio' gave way to more indecent exhibitions, unless 
it be true, as alledged by Canlerus, that this line is out of its 
place and should follow 164, — a supposition which seems 
very probable : but Ruperti thinks the line altogether an 
interpolation. 



v. 259 — 264. Sat. xi. Juvenal. 315 

For us, my friend, whose skin grows old and dry, 
To some warm sunny nook we'll rather fly, 260 
Throw off the gown, nor deem it here too soon 
To bathe, altho* it want an hour of noon — ■ 
Yet five such days would tire you of the Farm, 
Rareness gives leisure more than half its charm. 



Argument. 



Juvenal writes to Corvinus, to congratulate him on the 
escape from shipwreck of their common friend, Catullus ; 
acquaints him with the sacrifices he is about to offer, as 
tokens of his gratitude, and takes occasion to point out the 
base motives which frequently led to these apparent 
testimonies of regard ; with a vehement execration of such 
characters (the legacy hunters of Rome) in the person of 
Pacuvius, the Satire concludes. 

' The lively picture/ says Gibbon, ' which he draws of 
these knaves and their artifices, is far superior to his des- 
cription of the tempest, which is tedious, languid, con- 
fused, disgraced by declamation, and even by puerility.' 

The Satire certainly abounds with many happy strokes, 
and also with very considerable beauties ; and though, on 
the whole, less interesting as an entire composition than 
several others, it is not that which I should set down as 
the least so of the set. 

Whatever is known of the Characters whose names 
occur in the Satire, I reserve for the Notes. 



attre xn. 



I han my own birth-day*s festival more sweet, 
This morn, my friend, this happy morn I gre^t* 
Rear'd from the flowery turf the altar stands, 
And waits the promis'd victim at our hands : 
To the great queen a snow-white lamb we lead, 
A fleece as fair for Pallas is decreed. [5 

Yon heifer that disdains his narrow scope, 
Butts at the stake, and shakes th' extended rope, 
Fit for the axe, the altar, and the wine, 
To great Tarpeian Jove, I long design ; 10 

Now of full growth, he quits the teat in scorn. 
And tears the tender shoots with nascent horn. 
O would my means a monstrous bull allow, 
A monstrous bull in gratitude I'd vow. 
Whose march its own enormous bulk impedes, 15 
Fill'd with the fatness of the Umbrian meads, 

V. l6\ FiU'divith the fatness of fyc. Umbra was noted for 
its rich pastures, one of its rivers, the Clilumnus, which Juvenal 
here mentions, is celebrated also by Propertius and by Virgil ; 



818 Sat. xii. Juvenal. v. 17-^28* 

Huge as Hispulla, scarcely to be slain 
E'en by the stoutest servant of the train- 
So would I hail my friend, whose thoughts explore 
The perils past, and scarce believes them o'er ! 20 
For not to name the sea's tumultuous swell, 
Heaven's fiery bolt just miss'd him as it fell : 
From the dark bosom of a swarthy cloud 
Glanc'd the quick flash — and straightway blaz'd the 

shroud : 
Stunn'd by the shock, each thought he felt the 

blow, 25 

And shipwreck was esteem'd a trifle now, 
(Tho' greater storm ne'er yet did Poet raise,) 
Compar'd to crackling masts and sails that blaze I 

the plains through which it flows were famous for the white color 
of its cattle, and constituted therefore the great resource for 
the consumption of the altar. It is worthy of remark that the 
Pagan sacrifices required that the animal offered should be 
perfect in its kind, unmanned, unreluctanf, and the more ac- 
ceptable if without spot or blemish. 

V. 17. Huge as Hispulla. ' II n'auroit pas tie digne 
dun Poet aussi grave que Juvenal de rcprochir a cette Femme 
son embonpoint excessif, si d'ailleurs, elle n'uvcit pas ete dif- 
famee: ma is on a vu, Sat. vi. Hispulla tragoedo gaudet.' 

The above will prove, if the reader still doubt, the capabi- 
lity of any passage for a note, and will demonstrate that a 
French critic can occasionally get drowsy as well as a German 
one. 

V. 27. Tho' greater storm ne'er yet did Poet. Homer in the 
Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil, Lucan, Statins, Ovid, Valerius Flac- 
cus, have all, says Dusaitlx, described tempests— and no won- 
der. 



v, 29—30. Sat. xii. Juvexal. 319 

Claim we thy pity to a new distress, 
Tho' shipwrecked thousands have eftdur'd no less \ 



The frequency of Shipwreck too, in the infancy of navigation, 
furnished matter for Poets, as well as for Painters. There are 
many beautiful epigrams in the Anthologia on this subject, 
the following is from Callimachus. An inscription for a 
Cenotaph. 

Void of a grave, this monumental stone 

Of hapless Naxus bears the name alone, 

Deep in the whirlpools of iEgina's sea, 

His body lies a warning meet for thee I 

Tempt not the winds, forewarn'd of dangers nigh, 

When the Kid glitters in the western sky. 

But let not the Poets have all the merit of describing tern* 
pests; the account, which Tacitus gives of the distresses 
endured by the fleet of Germanicus after they got out of 
the mouth of the Ems, upon the ocean, (Annal. II. 23.) 
is equal to any description of the kind in existence. 

' Ac primo placidum cequor milh navium remis strepere out 
veils impelli: mox atro nubium globo effusa grando, simul 
variis undique procellis incerti Jiuctus prospcctum adimere> 
regimen impedire ; milesque pavidus et casuimi maris ignarus 
dum turbat nautas vel intempestive jurat, ojficia prudentium 
corrumpebat. Omnedehinc caelum' — but the passage is too long 
to transcribe. 

Lucian tells the historian that he will now and then have 
occasion for ' a poetical wind,'— de Hist. Conscrib. 

Ss-yosi yot% tots <j ruyy^ccpv; I70IHTIK0T TINOS ANEMOT 



S20 Sak xif. Juvenal. v. 31-M-2: 

Hence all the tablets, and the emblems rude, [30 
In every fane and temple to be view'd j 
(If storms should fail and shipwrecks were no more 3 
The famish'd painters might their case deplore J) 

The hold was filling fast, the impetuous wave 35 
Threaten' d the vessel's yielding sides to stave 
At every blow, and now but just afloat, 
The hoary Pilot view'd his helmless boat I 
Catullus deem'd it prudent to divide 
His goods and chattels with the wind and tide, 40 
Taught by the beaver who, for safety's sake, 
An eunuch of himself compell'd to make, 



V. 32. In ever}/ fane and temple. The votive tablet Wat 
an account of the particular misfortune which the votary had 
escaped, hung up in the temple of the god or goddess whom 
he had invoked in his danger. Isis was particularly in request 
on these occasions, and the painter was applied to by the 
rescued party, to paint a picture of his particular wreck in 
order the more to show his own gratitude, aud the wonderful 
interposition of the goddess. A festival was annually held at 
Rome in her honor, and a boat was launched called Navigium 
Isidis, after which, the rest of the day was spent in festivities. 

V. 39. Catullus deemd it prudent. First of the text ; 
' Heinsius nous assure que hs plus anciens manuscrits portent 
ici Testiculi, au lieu de Testiculorum /' Dusaulx. The com- 
parison which Juvenal here institutes between his friend throw- 
ing his goods overboard, aud the intelligent beaver biting oft* 
the organ alluded to, is certainly very humorous. As to the 
fact, it is needless to say that the Poet only makes use of a. 
popular story, without any foundation. 



v. 43 — 58. Sat. xii. Juvenal. S2* 

Of his own value conscious, bites away, 

And leaves behind, his medicated prey. 

Come, said Catullus, heave into the deep 45 

All that is here of mine, — nought would he keep. 

In such extremes, and many a purple vest, 

Ere he had ceas'd to speak, the storm possess'd, 

Of wool, which, while on Bsetic pastures grew 

The living fleece, was ting'd with native hue 50 

By Bcetic herbs, altho* a stream be nigh, 

To aid the powers of Andalusia's sky. 

He doubted not, in perils such as this, 

The labors of Parthenius to dismiss ; 

Goblets, which held whole urns, away he rolls, 55 

Huge plates of silver, with enormous bowls, 

Worthy the thirst of Centaurs to allay, 

Or Fuscus* wife, more thirsty still than they. 



V. 49. Of wool, which, while. The Bsetis, Guadal- 
quivir, a river of Spain, which gave name to the district, flows 
through a country still famous for its breed of sheep ; the 
color of their fleeces had a reddish tinge, which probably still 
distinguishes them. 

Colorum plura genera — Hispania nigri velleris preecipuas 
habet. Pollentia juxta Alpes cani: Asia rutili quas Eryth- 
rteas vocant : item Bcetica. 

V. 57. Worthy the thirst of Centaurs. As the vase here men- 
tioned was Uruse Capacem (4 gallons and a half) it was indeed 
a draught not unfit for that meritorious centaur, by name Pho- 
lus, (I beg his pardon for leaving it out) who at the feast of 
the Lapithce and the Centaurs, presented to Hercules such 

Jiw. X 



322 Sat. xn. Juvenal. v. 59 — 72. 

Cups too of rare device, (which once were his 
Whose cunning took Olynthus by surprise ; 60 
By bargain, not by storm,') away they swept i 
Who else had life on such conditions kept ? 
A second man do earth's wide confines hold, 
Preferring love of life to love of gold ? 

The needless perish'd ; of the useful too 65 

In vain the larger part away they threw. 
The adverse gales still vehemently blow, 
The axe is call'd for, now the mast must go ! 
To this disastrous toil all hands apply, 
And one more desperate chance for life they try. 70 
Now trust those winds that have for ever lied, 
To yielding planks thy life once more confide, 



a pailfull of wine, after setting him a proper example. — As 
to the wife of Fuscus, the interpreters refer us very properly 
to her husband, who may be met with in the sixteenth Satire. 

V. 59. Cups too of rare device. The memorable city of 
Olynthus in Thrace, situated at the head of the Sinus Toronai- 
cus, was betrayed to Philip by Lasthenes Euthycrates. This 
8 Callidus Emptor Olynthi,' was in the habit of buying cities, 
and occasioned the passage in Horace. 

Dijfidit urbium 

Portas vir Macedo, fyc. 
V. 71. Now trust those winds, S?c. This very seasonable 
and too literally faithful expostulation had been given, it 
seems, before. Laertius Lib. i. memorat, Anacharsidem 
quum audisset rerTaga§ daxrvXov; eivai to nayo; r>jf veto; 
dixisse, toq-qvtqv Quvutov tqv$ nXeovTcts onrs^siv, et Dio Chry- 



v* 73 — 92. Sat. xn. Juvenal. 323 

That so, a board three inches thick, may 

BE, 

The measur'd distance betwixt death and 



THEE 



Yet stay, for if the deal be very wide, 75 

Then six or seven may thee and fate divide ! 
O when your sea stores safe on board you view, 
Think, think of storms, and take the hatchet too. 

But when the raging ocean smil'd again, 
And Fate prevail'd o'er Eurus and the main, 80 
When a new thread the Sister hands began, 
And whiter flax along their fingers ran, 
When scarcely stronger than the summer gale 
The wind subsiding softly swell' d the sail ; 
(One sail alone upon the prow was left) 85 

In wretched plight, of mast and oar bereft, 
With stretch'd-out garments eagerly they try 
T'arrest the favoring breeze which passes by. 
The south wind fell, and now a sunny beam 
Breaks thro' the haze, and warms with cheerful 
gleam j 90 

And next, high towering in the distant sky, 
The lofty shores lulus lov'd they spy ; 

sost. Oral. lxiv. de Fortuna, navem adpellat Tg»$axTuXc> 
%vXov irsuxivov. Ruperti. 

V. 92, The lofty shores lulus lov'd. The high lands of 
Alba Longa are several miles distant from the shore. They 
were named from the event which took place on the landing 
of Mneas, ' Icetis Phry gibus mirabih mmen' — Juvenal's re- 



324 Sat, xii. Juvenal. v. 93 — 108. 

E'en to Lavinum's plains, the youth divine 

That hill preferr'd, on which the milk-white swine 

Its name impos'd, which by the Sons of Troy, 95 

Spied afar off, might well be seen with joy ! 

Ere long those mighty Mounds of stone they gain, 

On which included waters beat in vain. 

The Tyrrhene tower — the arms that wide extend, 

And in mid-sea towards each other bend, 100 

Leaving far, far behind (O talk no more 

Of nature's harbours) the Italian shore ! 

His crippled ship now safe within the pier, 

The hoary helmsman cautious still fiom fear 

Steers to the inmost shallows, where the boat 105 

Of Baise's fishers may securely float j 

Then with shorn crowns, all press on shore to tell 

The tale which shipwrecked seamen love so well. 

spect for this story seems to have been much on par with the 
reverence he entertained for the rest of the mythology of his 
country. 

The lines, which presently follow, are a well-known de- 
scription of the Port of Ostla, which may he recognised in 
Suetonius, ' Portum Qstire exstruxit, circumdato dextrasinis- 
traque brachio, et ad introitum, profundo jam Salo, mole 
objeeta, quam quo stabilius fundaret, navem ante demersit, 
qua niagnus obeliscus ex ./Egypto fuerat advectus, congestis- 
que pilis superposuit altissimam turrim in exemplum Alex*- 
andrini Phari, ut ad nocturnes ignes cursum navigia dirigerent.' 

Juvenal, then, calls this light-house at the pier-head of 
Ostia, Tyrrhena Pharos, in opposition to the celebrated 
structure at Alexandria^ which had been so called, kcct' sfyxw* 



v. 109 — 130. Sat. xii. Juvenal. 825 

Come, then, with garlands to the fanes repair, 
Be every rite and happy omen there, 110 

Pile the green glebe and let the altar rise. 
Thence, when the rites of grateful sacrifice 
Are duly done, I'll to my small abode ; 
There shall each much rever'd domestic god 
Sustain his wreath of flowers : there I'll bring 115 
To Jove my best and fairest offering ; 
Violets with lavish hand around I'll strew, 
Of every odour, and of every hue. 
*Tis ready all— with boughs the door is drest, 
And matin lamps the festival attest, — 1 20 

O be not thou suspicious of my joys, 
Blest is Catullus with three thriving boys. 
That such a sterile friend as he might live, 
An hen, with half-shut eyes, say, who would give ? 
An hen ! — no mortal would a quail bestow ! 1 25 
To snatch from death a sinking parent now ! 
But let Gallita, Paccius, heirless, — old — 
Flush with suspicious heats, or shake with cold, 
Then all the porch with tablets they invest, 
And with assiduous prayers each Fane molest. 130 



V. 120. And matin lamps. This custom prevailed on 
all occasions either of public or private rejoicing : Persius 
alludes to the practice, or rather expressly mentions it. 
Sat. v. 181. 

Vnet&que fenestra 
Dispositce pinguem nebulam vomuere lucertue. 



326 Sat. xn. Juvenal. v. 131 — 142, 

Some compromise for Hecatombs ! for here 

As yet no Elephants, for sale, appear — •. 

Alas, that Latian plains, a Latian sky, 

Should such a beast for such an use deny 

To ail but Cassar ! — he whole herds displays, 135 

Hither from swarthy nations sent, to graze 

Amidst the land of Turnus, and to rove 

The stately stranger of the Latian grove ! 

Their sires perhaps the Punic chieftain taught, 

Or the Molossian, with whole cohorts fraught 140 

Th' embattled tower, pois'd on their necks, to bear 

Themselves no slender portion of the war ! 

V. 132. As yet no elephants. In the year of Rome 471, 
when Pyrrhus made war against Italy, the Romans first be- 
came acquainted with the elephant ; they took some of these 
animals from the Carthaginians, in the Punic War, and Pliny 
reports, that five hundred were exhibited at one time in the 
Circus! It is wonderful, considering the trouble of embark- 
ing and disembarkation even of a regiment of cavalry, to 
find a people little skilled in mechanical inventions, trans- 
porting hundreds at a time of these unwieldy animals, across 
the Mediterranean. They were at length employed (fas est 
et ab hoste doceri) by the Romans themselves. 

We must not overlook the opposition of the quail to the 
elephant. The latter, Novius or Pacuvius would have been 
glad, he says, to lead to the altar, while the quail would have 
been too expensive even to save a father's life. Now the quail 
was not only a small bird, but in disesteem with the Romans, 
on the grounds that it was observed to eat the seeds of helle- 
bore, and other poisonous vegetables, and to be subject to 
some sort of fit, or epilepsy — most likely in consequence. 



v. 143 — 164. Sat. xii. Juvenal. S27 

Such would Pacuvius, such would Novius slay- 
Before Gallita's gods without delay ! 
Is there a victim or a boon too great - 1.4$ 

To snatch Gallita from impending fate ? 
These to the altar would their slaves devote, 
Those of their ancient servants cut the throat ; 
This some fair maid would to the temple vow, 
And bind, himself, the fillet on her brow ! 150 

If on her ruffian sire a daughter smil'd, 
He'd make the altar welcome to his child, 
And Iphigene must bleed, of tragic lore, 
Altho' the wondrous hind be hop'd no more ! 

I praise my countryman of wisdom rare, 155 

Nor deem that any would a will compare 
To txvicejwe hundred ships ! for if the tomb 
His friend escape and Libitina's doom, 
Attentions so refin'd must needs er se 
All former names, and every claim efface S 1 60 
Heir of the whole behold Pacuvius stalk, 
And 'midst his rivals insolently walk ; 
See to what good account a tragic lay- 
May turn ; how well judicious murders pay i 



V. 153. And Iphigene must bleed, Sfc. The Grecian 
fleet being detained at Aulis by contrary winds, the oracle 
told them, they should not depart till Agamemnon consented 
to the sacrifice of his daughter, Iphigenia : at the critical 
moment, Diana sends a hind as a substitute. 



328 Sat. xii. Juvenal, v. 165 — 168. 

O may Pacuvius long as Nestor last, 165 

All Nero plunder'd by his wealth surpast, 
And when to mountain height his heaps be grown, 
May he be, none, beloving^ lov'd by none ! 



V. l6\5. This poetical execration is perhaps imitated, says 
Dusaulx, from Ovid, 

1 Sisque miser semper, nee sis miserabilis ulli.' 



Argument 



Juvenal teaches in this Satire that guilt pretty certain- 
ly meets with its punishment in this life, and exhibits a very 
powerful picture of a guilty person under the horrors of 
an awakened conscience. The defect of which doctrine 
should seem to be, that the lower degrees of guilt incur 
the penalty more surely than the greater, and that there is 
a hardening produced by habitual crime, which sets such 
a retribution at defiance. 

The piece abounds with excellence ; it is evidently the 
production of a wise and reflecting mind, which had con- 
templated human nature very deeply, and it supplies, 
without the dryness of an ethical treatise, such a skilful 
developement of the progress of unrestrained passions, 
that it can hardly be read by any without improvement. 
To my own taste, it is one of Juvenal's best pieces. 



330 



PERSONS 

MENTIONED IN THE SATIRE, 



CALFINUS, the person to whom Juvenal addresses this 
discourse is unknown, though the dedication of such 
a piece does him infinite honor. 

Ladas was celebrated for his swiftness, and gained fre- 
quent prizes at the Olympic Games. Catull. Iv. 25. 
The gout, therefore, (see the passage) would have been a 
serious affair for his reputation. 

I agellus, unknown. In most editions, Bathyllus,— the 
favorite of Anacreon, and of Polycrates, who caused 
a fine statue to be raised to the honor of his form. 

Gallicus Rutilius, made Prefect of the city by Domitian, 

Quern penes intrepida mitis custodia Roma. 

Chrysippus, a Stoic Philosopher, Sat. ii. 7. and one of 
the most distinguished of the sect : See a long and 
learned article in Bayle. Concerning Socrates, the 



331 

English Reader will do well to consult his '' Life/ 
by Cooper, a very well-written and interesting little, 
volume. 
C&ditius was, according to the Scholiast, one of the 
ferocious spirits which formed the Privy Council of 
Nero, and is therefore well coupled with Rhada- 
snanthus. 



attre xm. 



1 hat crimes, successful crimes, the soul annoy 
And mar the conscience-stricken culprit's joy, 
That guilt, by self-inflicted terrors curst, 
This smart sustains, the surest and the first, 
O ! who can doubt, tho' knavish praetors dare 
By lying urns the crimes they judge to share! 



V. 5. Tho' knavish prcetors dare. Or as I had first trans- 
lated the passage, 

Altho' the Praetor's hand with shameful fraud 
Dismiss complaint, and venal crowds applaud. 
That the purposes of justice could be disturbed by gaining 
this officer is plain enough, for he had the casting up of the 
votes. In the first place, preparatory to the trial, he placed 
in his urn little balls, inscribed with the names of persons, 
out of which a certain number were withdrawn for the hearing 
of the cause : then, at the end of the trial, these persons 
severally threw in their votes, expressed by the letters A. C. 
NL. Absolvo. Condemno. Non Liquet. Balls were made use 



y. 7 — 26. Sat. xiii. Juvenal. 833 

Think not that men are to thy wrongs unjust, 

Nor lightly deem of violated trust, 

But they are pleas'd that thou canst better bear 

The loss than some — nor is thy hardship rare, 1 

A case long since to suffering thousands known, 

The news of every day familiar grown, 

"Which from promiscuous heaps the Goddess drew, 

Without design, and gave the lot to you! 

Cease then to sigh and let us soon dismiss 15 
A grief too vehement for wrongs like this j 
A manly sorrow never should be found 
In weak excess, and greater than the wound. 
Behold ! of evils small, the smallest share 
Your troubled spirit thinks it much to bear, 20 
Is it so strange a scoundrel-friend should hold 
In perjury's despite your trusted gold ? 
What ! with full sixty years behind thee left, 
Be scar'd by fraud or startled at a theft ! 
So little taught, by much experience school'd, 25 
Grown grey with age, born when Fonteius rul'd ? 



of that, by their agitation in the vase, the sortitio might be 
entirely an affair of chance; but angular pieces of wood were 
afterwards made use of, as appears from a curious citation of 

Holyday, from a collection of ancient inscriptions. IS. 

PRETQR. SORTICULAM. UN AM. BUXEAM. LON- 
GAM. DIGITOS. IIII. LA.— 

V. 26. Born when Fonteius rul'd. Lucius Fonteius 
Capito was Consul under Nero and colleague of Caius 



334 Sat. xiii. Juvenal. v. 27 — SS. 

Wisdom, th' impatient spirit to rebuke, 

Pens many a precept in her sacred book ; 

Yet happy those whom life itself can train 

To bear with dignity life's various pain, SO 

And who by long experience have been broke 

To toss not, but with meekness bear the yoke. 

What day so sacred that one shall not meet 

A ruffian or a rogue in every street ? 

Gains sought for and secur'd,by crimes abhorr'd, 35 

And money earn'd by poison and the sword ? 

For O ! the just are rare, a race so small, 

The gates of Thebes would more than equal all - 7 



Vipsanius, A. U. C. 872, from which date it follows, unless 
indeed the words ' seocaginta annos' were loosely and poetical- 
ly employed, that this Satire was written soon after the begin- 
ning of Adrian's reign. ' Juvenal', however, says Mr. Gibbon, 
' seems to have taken a pleasure in perplexing us, by often 
speaking of many persons as his contemporaries who lived 
at different periods of time.' 

At any rate, this passage proves the Satire to have been writ- 
ten at such a period as to have made a person born in the Con- 
sulate of Fonteius, fit to be addressed in the character of an 
elderly man, and that Juvenal was at this very time in the 
full possession of his genius, is a point which may be 
safely left to the determination of the Satire itself. 

There was, indeed, a Consul of the same name, one hundred 
years earlier, but that would be much too early for the age of 
Juvenal, as it would reach to the latter years of the reign of 
Tiberius. 

V. 38. The gates of Thebes. The city of this name in 



t. 39 — 44. Sat. xin. Juvenal. 835 

Or the seven mouths of Nile — and we are blest 
With a ninth age, outsinning all the rest, 40 

Which nature's self has left without a name. 
Nor deem'd one metal worthy of the shame. 

Go, cry to all the Gods in strains more loud 
Than those for which Fessidius pays the crowd, 



/Egypt, which he mentions in the beginning of the 15th 
Satire, 

Dimidio Magicce resonant uhi Memnone chordce, 
had an hundred gates, sxaro^TrvKo;, the still more celebrated 
Thebes of Boeoiia had but seven. The reader, according to 
his opinion of human nature and of Juvenal, must guess which 
of the two are here in contemplation ; I am afraid the 
s divitis ostia Nill' is conclusive. 

V. 40. With a ninth age. We no-where else read of more 
than four ages, but the coniext here, 

Quorum sceleri non invenit ipsa 
Nomen, et a nulla posuit Natura metallo 
appears to prove that a farther refinement had taken 
place, and that all the metals then known were employed in 
aid of it. 

Lord Peterborough had a good practicable notion of the 
golden age ; in a letter to Pope, he says, " your notion of the 
golden age is, that every shepherd might pipe where he 
pleased : I have lived longer, am more moderate in my wishes, 
and would be simply content with the liberty of not piping, 
wheie I am not pleased." 

V. 44. Than those for which Fessidius. Ssivco^ xai <ra.§- 
xx.<rriKws, as Ruperti says ! The Sportula appears to have 
been an instrument of great power, and for the sake of some- 
thing equivalent to it, there will always be found a sufficient 



336 Sat. xin. Juvenal. v. 45 — 60. 

Whene'er he pleads ? — O fit to wear once more 45 

The golden Bulla which thy nonage wore. 

Hast' liv'd so very long not yet to know, 

From money not one's own what pleasures flow ? 

The smile on ev'ry face around thee see, 

The smile still rais'd at thy simplicity, SO 

Who preachest much of oaths, and that the shrine 

Of ev'ry God should be esteem' d divine ! 

And how by fanes, and blazing altars nigh, 

Abides some stern observant Deity ! 

These dreams might suit the lives our rustics led 55 

Ere Saturn doff'd the diadem and fled ; 

A little virgin yet when Juno ran, 

And Jove himself a private gentleman ; 

When public dinners were in heaven unknown, 

And Gods and Goddesses still din'd alone : 60 



number of well dressed, respectable, persons, to cry Bene, 
Pulchre, at decent intervals, and in the right place too ! 

• Kara in tenui facundia panno. 

• V. 56. Ere Saturn doff'd Ms diadem. Here we get into 
a period of ancient history of which the records are few. 
Juvenal's account of it is an admirable specimen of humor, 

* Tunc quwn. Virguncula Juno, Sfc. —Prandebat sibi quisque 
Deus, — Nee turba Deorum Talis, ut est hodie,' &c. &c. 

Homer treats Vulcan with similar disrespect. II. a. 597. and 
less liberality, for he inhumanly ridicules his lameness— 
which was his misfortune; while Juvenal reprehends his 
dirtiness -which was his fault. 



v. 61 — 78. Sat. xin. Juvenal. 337 

When yet no goblet sparkled in the hand 

Of the fair youth that came from Ilium's strand, 

Or her's, of Hercules the buxom dame : 

With hands unwash'd ere limping Vulcan came, 

From all the smoke and soot of Lipari, 65 

And soak'd the nectar till the cup was dry. 

O golden times when Gods were scarce and few, 

Not such a motley crowd as now we view ! 

The skies a small establishment possest, 

And with a lighter load was Atlas prest. 70 

Obey'd no Monarch then the sad profound, 

By his Sicilian bride no Pluto frown'd : 

Wheels, furies, vultures, rocks, unheard-of things^ 

And the gay ghosts were strangers yet to kings ! 

'Twas in that age, in those forgotten times, 75 
That men were startled and alarm'd at crimes ; 
And crime it was, of expiation dire, 
If all arose not to the hoary sire : 



V. 77. And crime it ivas. The Poet here, after his man- 
ner on many other occasions, contrasts with the wickedness of 
his own age, the simplicity of former times, and particularly 
s lects a feature of such great importance, that much may 
be inferred from it alone; respect to years. — Juvenal always 
goes far enough back for ages of virtue and innocence ! 
' Plura domifraga, et majores glandis acervos!' 

Under Tiberius, the younger Sylla refused at a combat of 
gladiators to give place to Domitius Corbulo, an aged magis- 
trate of Rome. Even at this degenerate period of Roman 
history, in this senescence of Roman morals, the vitality of 

Juv. Y 



338 Sat. xiii. Juvenal. v. 79—96 

E'en boys in turn to bearded men gave way, 

Tho* rear'd and fed in prouder homes than they : 

Homes with a larger stock of acorns stor'd, [80 

Or of wild strawberries an ampler hoard j 

So great a thing precedency became, 

Of four brief years ! such honors age would claim, 

That on the cheek the earliest down that grew, 85 

Possess' d its share of privileges too ! 

Now if a friend prove faithful to his trust, 

And give you back your coin with all its rust, 

Prodigious faith ! let Lambs with garlands drest, 

And Tuscan chronicles the deed attest ! 90 

If of the ancient strain I chance to find 

A man of undesigning artless mind, 

Like some two-headed beast I seem to see 

A freak of nature's eccentricity ! 

To mules with foal, the monster I compare, 95 

To fishes found beneath the wondring share ! 

former good principles displayed itself ; complaint was made 
to the Senate ; the affair discussed ; the young man repri- 
manded ' exemplo majorum, qui juventutis inreverentiam gra- 
vibus decretis notavissent.' 

Prejudices really founded in nature, or productive of benefit 
on the whole from association, ought not to be shocked. On 
this account one of the first female writers of the age, in one 
of her many excellent productions, lias erred in causing the 
great and conclusive event of her story, to turn upon the 
desperate hypocrisy and perjury of an aged man, whose 
external appearance is studiously represented as quite im- 
posing. — But what has this to do with Juvenal ? 

V. 96. To Jishes found. We have here a list of Roman 



v. 97 — 112. Sat. xm. Juvenal. 339 

If it rain'd stones t'would give me less alarm, 
If clustering bees should on the temples swarm 3 
If streams of milk from wondrous gulphs below 
In bursting torrents o'er the land should flow ! 100 

Cheated of ten sestertia, ten alone, 
By sacrilegious fraud — -We hear thee groan ! 
What if two hundred in their place ? and what 
If like a third complainant's, 'twere thy lot 
Whose trusty friend, what almost fill'd a chest 105 
Receiv'd in charge, with no one to attest. 
Of mortal kind — and if to man unknown, 
Who cares for frauds discern'd by Gods alone ? 
Mark with how loud a voice the wretch denies ! 
With what a steady countenance he lies ! 110 

Tarpeian thunders, Solar beams he cites, 
And all the darts of Cirrha's Lord invites ; 



prodigies. A considerable shoal was sometimes caught under 
the plough, to assure myself of which fact I have turned, as 
directed, to Pliny, 1. ix. 57- Whether we adopt the reading, 
miranti sub aratro, or, mirandis sub aratro piscibus— ■Whe- 
ther we make the plough-share astonished at disturbing the 
fishes, or confer the astonishment on its conductor, does not, 
I presume, greatly affect the meaning of the passage, or the 
authenticity of the miracle. 

As to the bees swarming * culmine delubri,' it was a 
prodigy of portentous meaning, and almost as alarming as the 
lighting of a swarm on a ship at sea. 

V. 111. Tarpeian thunders. To this excellent manual of 
classical adjurations, which comprises 

Quicquid habmt telorum armamentaria cceli, 



340 Sat* xiii. Juvenal. v. 113 — 132. 

The lance of Mars, the quiver and the reed, 
Borne by the Goddess of the chase, succeed j 
Thy trident, Parent of th' iEgean wave, 115 

Thy lance, Minerva, will he boldly brave, 
Heaven's whole artillery— he runs it o'er, 
Oath upon oath, and wishes it were more : 

* Behold the head of this my darling child, 

fi Compel me, all ye Gods ! to eat him boil'd, 1 20 
6 And steep' d in Egypt's vinegar, if I 

* But in the smallest point or item lie.' 

There are who trust to casualty for all, 
And deem no Ruler moves this earthly ball, 
Light, darkness, and the changing year assign 125 
To nature, and deny the Power Divine ; 
These boldly in the temple's precincts stand, 
And touch the altars with intrepid hand. 

Some hold, that Gods there be — who punish lies, 
And in their terrors thus soliloquise. 130 

4 With this, my body, howsoe'er she like, 
' Let Isis deal ; with furious Sistrum strike 

the swearer imprecates upon himself .the fate of Thyestes, to 
eat his own child, ' serv'd up in Pharian, that is ^Egyptian, 
vinegar, which was noted for it's special sharpness, and is 
added as an ironical aggravation.' 

V. 131. With this, my body, Sj-c. If I thought with 
Holyday that the consideration of the Sistrum was ' both 
instructive and delightful,' I should he happy to avail myself 
of a long note in his translation ; but easily anticipating 
the ingratitude of modern readers, I must confine myself to 



v . 133 — 144. Sat. xm. Juvenal. 341 

* Both Orbs at once, provide she let me keep 
c The full possession of the blessed heap. 

' Let the foul abscess, let the hectic vent 135 

c Its worst on me, with gold, with gold content.' 
6 Would Ladas' self, — unless the fool were mad, 
1 Not take the rich man's palsy, and be glad ? 
c Of the fleet footstep and th' elastic bound, 
c With Pisa's branch of starving olive crown'd, 1 40 

* Lightly I deem — and then suppose it great, 
6 The anger of the gods at least is late. 

6 If on all rogues some judgment they decree, 
4 When, when, I wonder, will they come to me ? 



tell them, on his authority, that the Sistrum is an instru- 
ment (probably musical,) found in the hands of Isis, on 
coins and bas reliefs ; that it is supposed to derive its name 
from treisiv concuiere, because when shaken, a number of 
loose rings attached to its outer margin, like the bells of a 
tambourine (which is indeed a sistrum) were made to jingle ; 
its figure was oblong or triangular, it had some transverse 
bars in place of parchment, and was provided with a handle 
—indeed it bears no inconsiderable resemblance to a grid-iron. 

V. 143. If on all rogues, SfC. Poena pede claudo. This 
consideration will of course often be the refuge of such as com- 
mit crimes, knowing them to be objects of divine punish- 
ment ; but they should set off against it, 

^ovitx. |W,sv rot. rcov Sswv tfwj si; ?s\o$ 8'ovy. atrQsvy. 

These considerations, the nearness of the apprehended good, 
and the remoteness of the anuexed evil, or possibility of its 
non-arrival, had been long before pointed out by Aristotle as 
the inducements to transgression, which operate on weak or cor- 
rupt minds ; in his admirable analysis of the motives to in jus. 



342 Sat. xiii. Juvenal. v. 145 — 162. 

4 Never perhaps at all, — 'tis weak to fear ! 145 

4 Or — I may pray, and they perchance may hear : 

* Some must escape — the Gods (we see) dispense 
4 Far different Lots, to quite the same offence. 

* And Villains, as Fate's beam moves up or down, 

* Writhe on a Cross, or sparkle in a Crown.' 150 

Thus they confirm their souls whene'er they feel 
The dread of vengeance on their bosoms steal. 
If summon' d now before the shrines to swear, 
They confidently march before you there. 
Nay, would almost compel you to receive 155 

The oath which you require not- — nor believe. 
(For dauntless courage in a desperate cause, 
Obtains not merely credence, but applause, 
And these of simple truth so act the part, 
Plays not Catullus' slave with happier art.) 160 
With voice Stentorian now thy anger pour, 
Like Homer's Mars magnificently roar ; 

tice, the persons most prepared to inflict, or most liable to 
suffer it, (Rhet. chap. xii. et seq.) this subject is largely 
discussed — the unjust calculate, he tells us, y XaJsiv itga.%avf£$ 
y [M) XaQovrss py Sovvqli SixrjV rj dovvati ixsv, aAA' sAcwYw -fyv 
tyjpiav stvai t'qv xegSovg. All that Juvenal says on the subject 
is admirable, and the conclusion of it, corresponding as it does 
to fact, 

Multi 
Committunt eadem diverso criminafato : 
Ilk crucem sceleris preiium tulit, hie diadema, 
one of the strongest arguments afforded by the light of 
nature, for a future and exact retribution. 

V. 16*0. Plays not Catullus' slave. Probably the same 
alluded to in Satire 8. 

Clamosum ageres ut phasma Caiulli. 



v. 163 — 164. Sat. xiii. Juvenal. 343 

' Wilt thou not crush this infamous design, 
* Nor move those brass or marble lips of thine 



V. l6"3. ' Wilt thou not crush. This facetious remonstrance 
with the Hominum pater at que deorum, which shows us how 
much of Juvenal's good opinion was enjoyed by Jupiter, con- 
cludes with a passage somewhat disputed. 



In carbone tuo charta pia thura soluta 
Ponimus. 
Some understanding the expression charta soluta, of the 
envelope of the incense. The reason alleged by Holyday 
against this interpretation, namely, ' that it is a too uncere- 
monious and degrading way of offering incense,' may be surely 
used in defence of it ; for the whole passage is of this com- 
plexion. The conjecture of Rutgersius gives the following sense? 
* Why do we on removing or loosening our papers, or petitions 
(propter qucefas est genua incerare deorum,) pour incense 
on the coals/ I prefer the translation of Holyday, before he 
met with the amendment. 

From paper rowls, 
Why else falls our free incense on thy coals. 

The use of incense, or fragrant vapors, must have found 
its way into the pagan worship, together with that of sacrifice, 
and from the same source : neither these practices, nor the 
slaughter of animals, were likely to lake their origin from the 
mere apprehension of man. 

Holyday on this passage quotes a story from Lubin, who 
quotes from Herodotus ; in which Jupiter Marmoreus vel 
aheneus, did interpose. One Archetimus left with his friend 
Cydias a sum of money, which the other chose to keep : the 
knave was summoned to the temple, and there desiring Archetimus 



344 Sat. xiii. Juvenal. v. 165— -180. 

' O long-enduring Jove ! not once reply, 165 

e Nor of this harden' d wretch confute the lie ? 
' Wherefore with incense come we to thy shrine 
' With heifers' liver, or the caul of swine ? 
* On Jove or on Bathyllus if we call, 
' Heedless of us alike ! why pray at all ? ? 1 70 

Patience ! — and hear what counsels we can lend, 
Whom dogmas daunt not, whom no systems bend, 
Who, nor the Stoic nor the Cynic heed, 
(They differ more in tunics than in creed !) 
Whom Epicurus with his calm delight, 1 75 

In herbs and plants ne'er made a proselyte. 
To greater skill let doubtful cases fly, 
Thy vein the merest bungler's hand may tie, 
If since the birth of time such crimes before 
Were never heard, convinc'd, I urge no more j 180 

to hold his staff for him, while he swore, he asserted with a great 
oath that he had indeed taken charge of the gold, though he 
had already restored it. On this his friend, transported with 
rage, bangs down his staff on the pavement, the cane splits to 
pieces, and the Rouleaus make their appearance to the great 
delight of the party and much to the credit of the god. 

V. 174. They differ more in tunics. The Cynics wore two 
garments, the Stoics but one, which was, as we read in Sat. 3. 
called Abolla, which peculiarity of dress procured for these 
Sages the name of cc^tuivs;. 

Concerning Philippus, the care of whose assistant, Juvenal 
says below is sufficient for such a common case as his friend's, 
his fame has perished with him. I find no other Philip but the 
physician of Alexander. 



v. 181 — 196. Sat. xiii. Juvenal. 345 

I bid thee not forbear to thump thy pate, 

Nor beat thy bosom black, nor bar thy gate. 

(For more the loss of money will appal, 

Than death itself and solemn funeral ! 

None are reduc'd to feign a sorrow here, 1 85 

Nor vex their eyes for an unready tear, 

None need contrive to make the cautious rent, 

On the robe's upper marge their grief to vent. 

With genuine tears we sob for cash no more, 

With pungent grief departed coin deplore !) 190 

But if all Courts and Forums every-where, 

Be fill'd with like complaints — with like despair, 

If ten times witness'd deeds men disavow, 

And e'en their hand and seal no more allow, 

Altho' their own Sardonyx prove the lie, 195 

Securely kept in desk of Ivory, 



V. 195. Altho* their own Sardonyx. The engraved gem 
kept under safe custody, and only accessible to its owner, kept 
in his Ivory desk ; even the evidence of this, he was ready to 
forswear. 

Claudius Ctesar smaragdos indue!) at et sardonychas. Pri- 
mus autem Romanorum Sardonyche usus est prior Africanus,ut 
tradit Demostratus, et inde Romanis hanc gemmarn fuisse cele- 
herrimam ? — That kind of carnelian, or sardonyx, which was 
not clear, was called caeca, for the sard of antiquity, on which 
the finest engravings are found, was a highly transparent carne- 
lian, almost as clear as glass. There was another very dissimi- 
lar stone, which went by the same name, formed of alternate 
layers or strata of white with black or brown. ' Arabicee excel- 
lunt candore circuli prcelucido eaque non gracili in ipsis 



346 Sat. xrn. Juvenal. v. 197 — 210, 

O weakness ! to expect that thou wert not 
Ordain' d to mingle in the common lot ! 
That egg of thine did some white pullet lay, 
Ourselves the vulgar chicks of every day ! 200 

More grievous crimes explore, and what you deem 
Enormous vice, shall venial error seem. 
The hir'd assassin, and the kindling match, 
Adroitly plac'd the chamber-door to catch ; 
The daring Few, from fanes who take away 205 
The gifts which piety delights to pay, 
Goblets to which the rust of ages clings, 
And crowns presented by some ancient kings ! 
These are there not — some pilfering knave will try 
From Neptune's cheek, or great Alcides' thigh, 210 



umhonihus nitente pr&terea mbslrato nigerrimi coloris.' — 
Plin. xxxvii. 6. This writer says of the Sard, that it is the 
only gem to which the wax does not adhere. 

V. 209. These are their not. More ridicule of temples ! 
Radit inaurati femur Herculis — for the ancient artists were 
well acquainted with the art of gilding: it was performed by 
the application of plates or leaves of the metal to the surface 
to be gilt, but as they could not beat the gold thin, it was an 
expensive way, and the leaf well worth peeling oft*. See 
in the Odyssey, (b. ill. v. 432.) the process for gilding the 
horns of the cow brought by Nestor as a present to Minerva. 

With reverend hand the Prince presents the gold, "*} 
Which round th' intorted horn the gilder roll'd, y 
So wrought, as Pallas might with pride behold. \ 



v. 211 — 230. Sat. xiii. Juvenal. 347 

To scrape the gilding — or from Castor steal 

All of his plating that their hands can peel ; 

Trifles to those who melt whole Thunderers down 3 

And coin them into trinkets for the town !— 

Those artists next review, whose hands prepare 215 

Drugs of small bulk, and efficacy rare, 

And last the wretch that merits to be sewn 

In leathern sack and into ocean thrown, 

An harmless ape by evil fate conjoin'd, 

To perish with the basest of mankind. 220 

Alas ! how few of all the crimes are here, 

Which daily meet the city prefect's ear. 

Which Gallicus, or ere the day's begun, 

Has heard, and hears, till the departing sun. 

Of human vice the abstract wouldst thou view, 225 

Thy painful studies in his hall pursue ! 

Frequent his court a week— then, if you can, 

Style yourself still a miserable man ! — ■ 

Who at swoln necks 'midst Alpine vallies stares ? 
Who, when in Meroe's plains the mother bares 230 

V. 217. And last the wretch. An allusion, which it is 
almost needless to mention, to the punishment inflicted hy 
the Romau laws on parricides. 

Gallicus was, it seems, a sort of police magistrate, and 
when we consider the size of Rome at that time, we may not 
doubt that his office was fit to be recommended for the study 
of human nature — on its worst side. 

V. '229- Who at swoln necks. An allusion to the goitre, 
extremely frequent in the Alps and there connected with 
idiocy or imbecility of mind : quite unconnected with the 



348 Sat. xiii. Juvenal, v. 231 — 236, 

Than her huge child a breast of huger size ? 
Who wonders at the German's azure eyes, 
Or at his horn-like curl of yellow hair ? — 
Distinctions these which a whole nation share ! 
Of his wing'd foes whene'ef the sounding cloud 
Alarms the Pigmy chief with clamors loud, [9,35 



latter misfortune, it is a disorder particularly frequent in 
many parts of Britain, in South and North Wales so common, 
that on a market day, in many Welsh Towns, thirty or forty 
specimens of it will be seen, and this, as I have frequently 
noticed, not in one or two towns, nor in particularly moun- 
tainous situations, hut generally over the whole country. In 
three places, Abergavenny, Ludlow, Carnarvon, I have par- 
ticularly noticed it. They never think of applying for reme- 
dies, which is lucky, as there are none. Vitruvius attributes 
this complaint, as later writers have done, to the snow water 
of a mountainous region, but quite without foundation. With 
us, women only are the subjects of this singular disorder, 
which does not in the smallest degree aifect the general 
health, nor, so far as I know, any particular constitutions. 

As to the screw curls and blue eyes of the Germans, 
Tacitus records both the natural peculiarity, (truces et 
ccerulei oculi) and the national fashion (' Insigne gentis 
obliquare crinem nodoque substringere' ). In like manner we 
learn from Thucydides that it was the custom of the ancient 
inhabitants of Attica to confine their hair in a knot with 
golden grasshoppers. 

V. 235. Of his wing'd foes. ' The pigmies who 

being but one foot high (as some size them) wage war with 
the Thracian fowls, the cranes ; against whom they make an 
expedition every spring, riding on the backs of rams, and 
being armed with darts and stones, spend three months in de- 
stroying their eggs and young ones.' Holyday. 



v. 23*7—256. Sat. xiii. Juvenal. 349 

He girds his little arms, but girds in vain, 
Clutch'd in the powerful talons of the Crane : 
Swift through the air with her illustrious prize, 
The bird with unincumber'd pinion flies. 240 

This scene in realms of ours should any view, 
He'd split with laughter — there 'tis nothing new — 
None smiles, because they witness every day 
The self-same issue of the self-same fray : [245 

Where the whole cohort's utmost height is found 
Scarcely to reach twelve inches from the ground ! 

* Shall fraud then florish, from all terrors free, 
c No rods for him, and no redress for me ?' 
Suppose him therefore dragg'd in ponderous chain, 
Or, (what would vengeance more ?) suppose him 
slain— 250 

Yet shall not the revenge for which you long, 
Refund the loss or recompense the wrong. 
* O, but revenge, than life I value more !' — 
Of minds untaught the most pernicious lore I 
Of bosoms where occasions none or slight 255 

The fiercest flames of causeless anger light— 



Huts 7tsp xkayyYj yspuvoov ttsAsi ovguvodt TtoOy 

A it £7T£» ovv %£iy,ctivci Qvyov xoii aSs<7<paT0v op,fipoy 

KXccyyy] t«» ye ■xstovt'XI s-tt' ftx.sa.voio poccaov, 

Av$pao~i irvyiuuioun. fovov xoa xyjpcx, <pspovo~cii. IA. F. 4. 

On raconte quune de leurs armies ayant attaqui Herculc 
endormi, ce Hiros pendant la siege enveloppa tons ces com- 
battans dans sa peau de Lion et les emporta—Dusa^x. — This 
is Gulliver anticipated. 



350 Sat xin. Juvenal. v. 257—270. 

Not thus Chrysippus — nor the spirit mild 

Of Thales — gentle Nature's meekest child ! 

Not thus the sage who near Hymettus dwelt ; 

Rever'd old man ! not such the joys he felt ! 260 

Thro' his own veins the draught so soon to flow, 

He would not have divided with his foe 

'Midst those injurious bonds ! — our passions all 

Before the genuine voice of wisdom fall, 

And minds of mean and narrow scope alone 265 

To vengeance and its paltry joys are prone. 

For who like women, wrong with wrong requite, 

Or who in base revenge so much delight ? 

Yet why suppose that these escape the meed 
Annex'd by nature to the guilty deed ? 270 



V. 25Q. Not thus the sage. Dulci vicinus Hymetto — ■ 
Socrates, whose character was by far the most perfect, whose 
philosophy by far the most useful, in all antiquity. 
, V. 269. Yet why suppose. In this extremely beautiful 
passage, the poet, having already shown the weakness and the 
wickedness of a vindictive spirit, goes on to demonstrate that 
the guilty are sufficiently punished by the terrors ox remorse. 
He presently after alludes to the story of Glaucus, who did, 
according to Herodotus, all that is related of him in the text, 
and with the threatened consequences. He consulted the 
oracle to know if he might cheat : The oracle alarmed him to 
repentance and he made his apology on the spot, r] h Hv^iy 
spy, ro 7t£igYjQv)va.i fov 0sou xcu 70 ttmvjo-ou, urov Svvoctsu. 
The Spartan orator who relates this tale to the Athenians, 
concludes thus: ' I shall now tell you, Athenians, why I intro- 



v, 271 — 294. Sat. xm. Juvenal. 351 

Whose souls the rising consciousness can quell, 

And scourge them with a lash inaudible— 

Whose anguish' d spirit wields a viewless thong, 

And lictor-like repays the secret wrong. 

Such pains, Cseditius ! thou could' st ne'er devise, 

Nor Rhadamanthus, as the pang that tries [215 

The wretch who bears a witness in his breast 

That haunts by day, that nightly breaks his rest. 

Erst to a Spartan rogue the voice divine 

This answer render'd from the sacred shrine : 280 

1 That he who doubted to restore his trust, 

* And reason 7/ much, — reluctant to be just, 

£ Should for those doubts and that reluctance prove 

' The deepest vengeance of the powers above.* 

(The knave t' explore Apollo's mind would send, 

Perhaps the god— the vice might recommend !) [285 

By fear made honest, not by morals mov'd, 

True, he restor'd, but soon his story prov'd 

No idle menace this, pronounc'd in vain, 

But truth itself and worthy of the Fane. 290 

His house, his sons, one common ruin shared, 

Not one of his remotest kindred spar'd ! 

Thus the mere wish to sin the suffering wrought, 

And crime was punish'd but conceiv'd in thought ! 



duced this story ; there is no longer with us any vestige of 
Glaucus ; 

sxrcrgm-fcu re ifgPg^S & Stfa^r^.' Herod. Erato. 86. 



352 Sat. xiii. Juvenal, v. 295— 314. 

For he the Sin that meditates alone, 295 

Its guilt incurs — ah what if it be done ! 
Farewell, a long farewell he bids to peace, 
His soul's alarms shall never, never cease : 
With feverish mouth, with tongue for ever dry, 
To gulp the joyless, tasteless meat he'll try ; 300 
Large and more large it swells, and now he sips, 
Then casts the wine untasted from his lips : 
The precious age of Alba's richest store 
Seems void of flavor and can please no more. 
His brow to wrinkles drawn, which scarce the juice 
Of harsh Falernum's vintage might produce. [305 
At night, if care permit a brief repose, 
Nor longer o'er the couch his limbs he throws 
Forthwith the altar and th' insulted fane, 
And (what inflicts more aggravated pain) 310 

While copious sweats betray the secret storm, 
Before his eyes still flits thy angry form ! 
Greater than human, stalks his bed around, 
And rends anew the never-closing wound. 

V. 313. Greater than human. Many spectral impressions 
of this kind are recorded in history, as presenting themselves 
to persons in some way prepared for the vision, though not 
generally of the injured person whose visit would be most 
appropriate, as in Clarence's dream. It is singular enough, 
however, that in ancient times, when prodigies and monsters 
were accredited on very slight grounds, and omens were held 
sufficient to determine the most important transactions both 
to the state and to individuals, scarcely any downright 
ghost stories re recorded. I recollect none except that 



v. 315 — 322. Sat xiii. Juvenal. 353 

These, these be they whom coward terrors try, 315 
With every cloud that growls along the sky. 
Pale at each flash, and half extinct with dread, 
When the dark volume bellows o'er their head ; 
No storm as Nature's casualty they hold, 
They deem without an aim no thunders roll'd. 320 
Where'er the lightning strikes, the flash is thought 
Full charg'd with wrath, with Heaven's high ven- 
geance fraught. 

which is related in Pliny's Epistles, the gho->t of Brutus at 
Philippi, and that of Varus, which is so finely told by Taci- 
tus. ' Ducemque terruit dira quies, nam Quinctiliurn Varum 
sanguine oblitum et paludibus emersum cernere et audire visus 
est, velut vocantem, non tamen obsecutus et manum iniendentis 
repulisse.' 

V. 315. These, these be they. Caligula, who despised the 
gods in fine weather, was accustomed, says Suetonius, when 
it lightened, to hide himself under the bed clothes! 'ad 
minima tonitrua et fulgura connive?^, caput obvohere, ad 
majora vero proripere se e Sfrato sub lectumque condere 
solebat. 

Let the great Gods 
That keep this dreadful pother o'er our heads 
Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch, 
That hast within thee undivulged crimes 
Unwhipt of justice : hide thee, thou bloody hand: 
Thou perjur'd and thou simular man of virtue, 
Thou art incestuous — Caitiff to pieces shake, 
That under covert and convenient seeming 
Hast practised on man's life ! Close pent up guilts, 
Rive your concealing continents and cry 

These dreadful summoners grace Lear. 

Juv. Z 



354 Sat. xiii. Juvenal, v. 323 — 346 

Passes this by, with yet more anxious ear 
And greater dread the future storm they fear. 
Its burning vigil, deadliest foe to sleep, 325 

In their distemper'd frame if fever keep, 
Or sharp pleuritic pains their rest prevent, 
They deem that every god his bow has bent ! 
That pains and aches are stones and arrows hurl'd 
At bold offenders in this nether world ! 330 

Or crested cock, when languid on the bed 
They dare not vow, nor bleating quadruped, 
For what can sickness hope, with sin conjoin'd, 
Or than itself what viler victim find ? 

Light and capricious ever is the mood 335 

Of minds, with virtue's counsels unimbued. 
In vice alone inflexible, they shun 
The voice of conscience till the deed be done ; 
Then, will they ponder much of right and wrong, 
But habits form'd will ne'er be thwarted long, 340 
Nature unchangeable, in spite of vows, 
Relapses to the deeds she disallows ! 
Who can assign a barrier to his sins, 
Or knows their utmost verge when he begins ? 
Once, once, expung'd ! 'tis vain again to seek 345 
The crimson tinge that mantled in the cheek. 

V. 331. Or crested cock. This was the usual sacrifice 
of the convalescent, or of the sick to ^sculapius. See Pla- 
ton. Phtsdon. 

V. 345. Once, once, expung'd. 

Quando recepit 
lyectum semel attrita de fronte pudorem. 



v. 347 — 356. Sat. xm. Juvenal. 355 

Amidst the race of man, select me one, 
Contented with a first offence alone. 
Thus step by step the traitor shall pursue 
His desperate course, and find at length his due. 350 
Ere long the dungeon shall his crimes coerce, 
Or on iEgean rocks his fate he'll curse 
'Midst banish'd thousands : then shalt thou rejoice- 
But 'midst thy joy, confess with alter' d voice, 
That deafness, in the skies, no prayer repels, 355 
That 'midst the Gods no biind Tiresias dwells. 



Thus in that very humorous Dialogue of Lucian, where he 
brings all the sages of antiquity to be sold by auction (Jupiter 
the auctioneer and Mercury the clerk,) Diogenes, being put 
up, advises his purchaser first to get rid of all power of 
blushing, as a property very inconvenient to a philosopher, 
to sgvSgiay aitotyirov rov , irgotruj'irov itavrsXoug, and this ac- 
complished, he tells him all the rest is easy, ovSsv as ncu\v<rst 



%v%mmnt. 



In this Satire j, which carries conviction in every line, 
Juvenal appears both as a Poet and a Moralist to the 
greatest advantage. If the Satires were written in the 
order in which they stand (the 15th being altogether of a 
detached kind) one would incline to say, that Juvenal here 
closed his important function. He had alledged the de- 
pravity of Rome as a reason for assuming it, (Satire I.); 
he had exposed hypocrisy and obscenity, (Satire n. 
ix.) ; luxury, and the meanness of the parasite, (Satire iv. 
xi.); vices of the female sex, (Satire yi.); decline of let- 
ters, (Satire vn.); folly of the pride of birth in vicious 
characters, (Satire viii.); vanity of human wishes, (Satire 
x.) ; baseness of legacy-hunting, — a florishing employ- 
ment at Rome, (Satire xn.); perjury, dishonesty, and the 
train of crimes which tollow them, (Satire xiii.); — and 
now solemnly warning his countrymen of the conse- 
quence of ill example, the certainty of their children in- 



357 

heriting their vices, and even adding to them, he impres- 
sively exhorts them to reformation : he shews how natu- 
rally and how soon the elements of vice are learned, traces 
the whole to the progress of luxury, and the practice 
of the pernicious arts by which it is supported, and 
concludes by inculcating simplicity, ceconomy and con- 
tentment. 



PERSONS 

ENTIONED IN THE SATIRE. 



Fuscinus, Rutilus, are both unknown characters. 

Antiphates, a cannibal king of the Laestrigons, from being 
eaten by whom, Ulysses, among his various casualties, 
very narrowly escaped. Ovid xiv. 235. Odyss. x. 114. 

Posides, an eunuch of Claudius Caesar, from whom our 
British ancestors had the honor of a visit. 
Libertorum pracipue suspexit Posidem spadonem, 
quern etiam Brittanico Triumpho, inter militares viros, 
hasta pura donavit. 

Archigenes, see Note on Satire vi. 

Licinus, probably the same person, or of the same family, 
with that noticed in Satire i. 



Ego possideo plus 



Pallante et Licinis. ~~- 



Satire xiv. 



O there are deeds, Fuscinus, deeds of shame, 
Which blot the honors of the fairest fame, 
By Parents in their Children's presence done, 
And handed down, alas ! from sire to son ! 
Is gaming the infatuate parent's vice ? 5 

His stripling son soon learns to shake the dice — 
Or does that youth a fairer hope inspire, 
Who, apt disciple of a glutton sire, 
Peels his own truffles ! and in order due 
Pours in th' ingredients of his favorite stew ? 10 
Ere yet of life the first seven years be flown, 
Or all the teeth renew'd, the work is done ! 
Place scores of bearded teachers here and there, 
To preach of temperance ; for sumptuous fare, 
Your well-train' d son shall now for ever pine, 15 
Nor once, be sure, degenerately dine ! — 



360 Sat. xiv. Juvenal. v. 17 — 26. 

To mild affections and a generous mind, 
Which holds both lord and slave the same in kind, 
His child can, think'st thou, Rutilus invite, 
Whom rods and sounding scourges much delight, 20 
Who deems no Syren s equal to the lay 
Of screaming slaves, whom fell tormentors flay ! 
Whose trembling household in its tyrant sees 
A Polyphemus or Antiphates, 
Then truly blest, whene'er the glowing brand 25 
Stamps its red terrors on the pilferer's hand ! 



V. 18. Which holds both lord and slave. Juvenal, says 
Dusaulx, probably imitated Seneca in this enlightened pas- 
sage. Epist. 48. Vis tu cogitare ilium, quern tuum servum 
vocas ex iisdem seminibus ortum, eo frui ccelo, eeque spirare, 
eeque vivere, ceqne mori. 

The French critic, however, seems to have attached too 
much consequence, in an opposite view, to an expression of 
Cicero, which certainly contemplated nothing but his personal 
loss of an individual not of his immediate family. " I have 
just lost an amiable youth called Sositheus, who was my 
reader, and am more troubled at it than perhaps one ought, at 
the death of a servant." Epistles to Atticus. L. 12. 

V. 25. Then truly blest. Though ergastulum properly 
signifies a provincial Bridewell, the inscripta ergastula means 
* branded slaves.' Humanity has long since banished at least 
the execution of this terrible punishment from our law. That 
society is protected when the criminal carries his mark with 
him, (which is certainly one end of the infliction of punish- 
ment,) is a consideration in favor of and which probably 
suggested this measure. That the consciousness of that mark 



v. 27 — 52. Sat. xiv. Juvenal. 361 

What are his lessons, whose misguided boy 

Beholds a parent's base vindictive joy, 

Whom in retirement at his country seat, 

The clank of fetter' d slaves for ever greet ? 30 

Shall not her daughter with the mother vie, 

And tread the steps of Larga's infamy, 

Larga, whose doors admit so vast a train, 

That the poor child must breathe, and breathe again, 

Ere she could tell their names ; a party made 35 

To all the sins within her home display'd, 

The dame's accomplice soon the daughter grew s 

And learnt to scrawl her infant billet doux ! 

Thus Nature wills — more swift the mischief flies 
When dire corruption meets the infant eyes 40 
Within domestic walls, and wins its way, 
Sanction'd by those — 'twere sin to disobey ! 
Just here and there, an heart with hand benign, 
Prometheus forms, perhaps of clay more fine : 
These the seduction scorn — alas ! the rest 45 

Will tread the footsteps which their parents prest, 
Move in the orbit long familiar grown, 
Their sire's since memory was, and now their own ! 

O, cease from sin ! — should other reasons fail, 
Lest our own frailties make our children frail ; 50 
All, all are born with sad docility 
To imitate the vices v/hich they see : 

hardens the offender, and makes him indifferent to that, which 
no endeavour of his own can now redeem, is a still more 
weighty one against it. 



362 Sat. xiv. Juvenal. v. 53 — 66, 

Survey each clime the universe around, 
And scores of Catilines may yet be found ; 
A second Brutus, wouldst thou hope to know, 55 
On the vain search — ah ! whither wouldst thou go ? 
Let nought which modest eyes, or ears would 
shun 
Approach the sacred dwelling of thy son ! 
Far be the harlot from thy home away, 
And of carousing guests the wanton lay— 60 

His child's unsullied purity demands 
The deepest reverence at a parent's hands! 
Slight not his infant years, — O turn in time 
For the boy's sake, from half- projected crime ; 
If Rome defied, at length his sins pursue^ 65 

And censors scourge the crimes he learnt from you, 



6l. His child's unsullied purity demands. It is impos- 
sible, I think, to proceed far in this Satire, without renewed 
admiration of the wisdom, the truly enlightened mind, and 
the sound principle of the Poet ; without feeling that there 
never was a period of society to which he would not have been 
an ornament. Much has been written, and excellently written, 
on the subject of education, but in the great and broad result, 
the doctrine of this Satire, that example is every thing, and 
that bad example is more infallibly acted upon than good, a 
very moderate experience is sufficient to convince us. 
Ne tu pueri contemseris annos. 

Plutarch, in his life of Cato, relates that this illustrious 
Roman spoke in the presence of his son with as much pre 
caution as he would have used before a vestal. 



v. 67 — 80. Sat. xm Juvenal. 363 

Child of thy morals, not thy form alone, 
If he improve the vice he makes his own, 
With many a harsh invective thou'lt declare 
The will annull'd, and him no longer heir ! 70 

What ? dost thou dare assume a parent's face, 
Whose age persistive vices still disgrace ? 
Thou on whose brainless, void, and silly head, 
Th' exhausted cups should long, long since, have fed? 
Expects thy dwelling soon a stranger guest ? 75 
Behold ! not one of all thy menials rest ; — 
Down comes the spider's web, with all its dust — 
' You sweep the pavement — you scour off the rust'— 
To this the dish, to that the vase consign'd, 
While raves the master with his whip behind ! 80 



74. Th' exhausted cups. This remedy, like the use of the 
leech, is very ancient, Celsus et Aretceus passim — but it was 
already ancient in their time. Celsus describes the instrument 
as of two kinds, one of horn with a hole in the top to be 
exhausted from without ; the other of brass, ' into which 
burning linen is put, and then its mouth is suddenly clapped 
upon the parttill it adhere.' The cutting part of the appara- 
tus, which makes this practice so much more simple and easy, 
is of course modern, — the ancient surgeons made their incision 
with a lancet. Concerning the leech there is a remarkable 
passage in Pliny, L. xxxii. 10. 

' Decidunt satietate et pondere ipso sanguinis detractae, aut 
sale aspersa; — aliquando tamen affixa relinquunt capita, quae 
causa, vulnera insanabilia facit, et inultos interimit ; sicut 
Messalinum e Consularibus Patriciis cum ad genua ad' 
misisset.' 



$64 Sat. xiv. Juvenal, v. 81—104. 

Wretch, art thou troubled lest thy friend descry 
Some unswept corner, with enquiring eye ? 
Lest marks unseemly on thy porch be seen, 
Which sand, and any single slave may clean, 
And is it nothing, nothing that thy child 85 

Should see thy house with vices undefil'd ? 
From moral stains immaculate and free, 
The home of righteousness and sanctity ? 

Go, rear thy son to till his country's soil, 
The cares of civil life, of wars the toil, 90 

Equal alike to bear— and vaunt thee then 
The father of an useful citizen ! 
Vast ! vast ! the difference in what morals train'd, 
Or in what school the infant lore be gain'd ! 

Her progeny the stork with serpents feeds, 95 
And finds them lizards in the devious meads ; — 
The little storklings, when their wings are grown, 
Look out for snakes and lizards of their own ! 

The vulture tribes which by the gibbets prey, 
Or feed on casual carcase by the way, 100 

Brings home its share of carrion to the tree, 
Where rests the rav'nous vulture progeny, 
These, when of age their proper nest to build, 
With the same rank repast are daily filFd. 



¥', 89. Go, rear thy son, fyc, fyv Ttartipla. uxpeXycreiv, was 
the great object of the virtuous characters of antiquity ; in 
this desire, Agesilaus, as Xenophon records, ov itoviav v<pisto, 
8u mvSvvwv atpurtafo, ov yg>)\wtw zqzihfo, ov rw/xa, ou y>)§oti 
it^ov<pa,<nt,£to. 



v. 105—116. Sat. xiv. Juvenal. SG5 

Jove's eagle and the generous tribes of air, 105 
Pounce on the kid, or seize the timid hare : 
Their young, infected with the early taste, 
On sinewy wing, to woods and mountains haste, 
To the same fare which, since the shell they burst, 
Was all they knew — their latest and their first ! 110 

Centronius lov'd to build j and now the shore, 
Of curv'd Caieta prizM— now charm' d him more, 
The cliffs of Tibur ; —next some lofty site, 
Amid Prseneste's mountains would invite. 
The villas rose !• — thither were marbles brought, 115 
From Grecian and more distant quarries sought: 

V. ill. Centronius lov'd to build. On such a character 
Martial has an excellent epigram : 

Gellius (edificat semper : modo limina ponit, 
Nunc foribus claves apt at, emit que seras: 
Nunc has, nunc (Has mutat, reficitque fenestras, 

Hum tamen cedificet, quidlibet illefacit : 
Oranti nummos ut dicere posset amico, 

Unum Mud verbum Gellius, JEdijico. 
Dupe of the arts, which he presumes to guide, 
Still Gellius builds, while knowing friends deride ; 
On some new project desperately hot, 
So he but build, good Gellius cares not what. 
No needy friend can take him by surprise, 
* Ah! you forget I'm building!' Gellius cries. 
The conclusion of this tale of Centronius is admirable. 
——tot am hanc turbavit filins aniens t 
Dum meliore novas adtollit marmore villas. 
The history of this case is much like that of the female 
Athletae— •* I want something to do.' 



366 Sat. xiv. Juvenal, v. 117 — 126. 

Fortune's great fane, the crowds no more admir'd, 

That from his spacious palaces retir'd ! 

(So, one rich eunuch's ostentatious dome 

Eclipses far the capitol of Rome !) 120 

Thus built Centronius on — his means declin'd, 

Yet left his son a large estate behind. 

Of marbles finer still that frantic son, 

More villas still would raise — and was 

UNDONE. 

Some from the sabbath-fearing race descend, 125 
To skies and clouds with •superstition bend, 



V. 117. Fortune's great fane. At Praeneste was a very 
magnificent temple dedicated to this goddess, who acquired 
from it the surname of Preenestina, but it is more probable 
that Juvenal refers to some admired and well known temple in 
Rome, the remains of which exist no longer. 

1 he Eunuch Posides was a freedman of Claudius, and Pliny 
celebrates his magnificent suite of Baths at Baize. 

V. 126*. To skies and clouds. That is, they adored no 
visible representation of the deity — but that Juvenal should 
ridicule them for this; Juvenal, who covers image worship with 
contempt, is singular enough, for at any rate, if he gave them 
no credit for a more pure abstract notion of the deity, a cloud 
was as good as a stone. So little, however, of the Jewish ritual was 
known to the Romans, and so wretched was the appearance of 
the people who adhered to it, that it cannot be matter of sur- 
prise to find that the attention of the Poet had not been called 
to the subject, and that he was content with the popular 
opinions about both. The consequence was, that he did them 
the greatest injustice : had Providence permitted to him the 



v. 127—148. Sat, xiv. Juvenal, 367 

As human flesh, the flesh of swine abhor, 

Slave to each badge, their bigot parents wore, 

The laws of Rome they impudently slight, 

In deepest reverence hold each Jewish rite : 130 

To Moses and his mystic volume true, 

They set no traveller right — except a Jew ! 

By them no cooling spring was ever shewn, 

Save to the few — the circumcis'd alone ! 

And why ? because life's every use destroy'd, 135 

Each seventh day, their sires made null and void. 

Youth will to other sins spontaneous run, 
We are, it seems, at pains to teach them one. 
Nor hard the task, for looks sedate that seem 
Alien to vice, we falsely virtue deem : 140 

Hard of detection is the specious cheat, 
Which, aping virtue, oft in vice we meet: 
Thus the vile wretch whose soul on gold is bent, 
Men oft applaud as frugal, provident ! 
His money did the Pontic dragon keep, 145 

'Twere easier far to lull the brute to sleep, 
And people think — a farther claim to praise- 
That man an able Artist who can raise 



use of that volume of their great law-giver, how much would 
he have been astonished at the benevolence and mercy which 
it inculcates! and how little would he have felt disposed to 
boast of the light which the world had received from ' Athens 
or from Rome !' 

Nunc tottis Grains nostrasque habet orbis Athenas, . 



368 Sat. xiv. Juvenal. v. 149 — 172. 

Such monstrous piles ;— - for wealth will still en- 
crease, 
When all the arts that court it never cease, 150 
When (as with him) with everlasting strokes, 
The anvil rings, and still the furnace smokes ! 

The wealth-adoring parent must suppose, 
That with it joy inseparably grows : 
No sole nor single instance credits he, 155 

Of happiness in league with poverty ! 
So, he exhorts his son that way to choose, 
Which the blest sect so ardently pursues ! 
Vice has its feculence, its nauseous lees, 
He tries to saturate his soul with these, 1 60 

Till the dire lust of gain possess the man, 
Which nothing ever sates nor ever can ! 
His murmuring slaves receive their scanty meal, 
From his own famish'd paunch he loves to steal ; 
Damp crusts of bread, tho' blue and musty now, 
Not without some restriction he'll allow, [165 

Whose frugal habit puts the scraps away, 
The remnant of the hash of yesterday ! 
Who in September's heat still sets aside 
Some portion of his beans to-day denied ; 170 

Who, lest one savory fragment should be gone, 
Of a half-stinking Mackerel seals the bone ! 



V. 172. Of a half stinking mackerel. It is impossible not 
to feel the humor of this catalogue of curiosities. 

Filaque sectivi numerate, includere porri. 



v. 173—194." Sat xiv. Juvenal. 369 

And ere it quit his sight, counts every streak, 
And numbers every coat upon the leek ! 
Dainties, on which a beggar would decline, 1 75 
Kindly invited from the bridge, to dine ! 

Why bear for wealth alone this ceaseless pain ? 
'Tis madness, phrenzy, manifest and plain, 
That thou mayst die at last secure from want, 
To live for ever, like a mendicant. 180 

Though every bag with turgid mouth o'erflow, 
With money still will love of money 

grow! 
With the possession doom'd the pains to share, 
Those who possess the least, have least to bear. 
Go, buy more Farms, build larger Villas, see ! 1 85 
These narrow bounds beseem not such as thee ! 
Next to thine own some neighbour's corn-field 

join, 
Better it seems, and larger too than thine j 
This, and the neighbouring copse contiguous lie, 
That hill all white with olive tempts thine eye — 199 
Yet, if the present lord refuse all price, 
A way there is — and be not over nice, 
Turn in by night thy cattle starv'd and lean, 
Amidst those growing crops of waving green^ 

Martial describes the leek by a similar epithet. 

In quibus est Lactuca sedens, et sectile porrum, 
Nee deest ructatrix Mentha. 
V. 193. Turn in by night. Of the existence of this 
atrocious and ruinous piece of tyranny the test leaves us not 
JiW» 2 A 



370 Sat. xiv. Juvenal. v. 195—210. 

Nor lead them home till all the field be bare, 195 
As if a thousand sickles had been there 
(Alas ! how many of such crimes could tell, 
Driv'n by successive wrongs their lands to sell !) 
But didst thou know the shameful tales afloat, 
And Fame's foul trumpet ! O that harms me not : 
I set more value on a Lupin's skin, [200 

Than all the praise my humbler lot might win, 
If known to reap with unassisted arm 
The meagre harvest of a scanty farm ! 

True ! — you can bid disease and sickness fly, 205 
Escape from pain, life's every care defy, 
Fate sooth'd by gold, more length of days ensures, 
Provided such enlarg'd domains be yours, 
As, on the regal chair while Tatius sate, 
Form'd the first confines of the Roman state ! — ; 

to doubt, n'or'even of their frequency ; another proof of the om- 
nipotence of example, as Juvenal observes in the sixth Satire. 

Quis non faciei quod principis uxor ? 

The Emperors must have been tolerably versed in the 
practice of depriving their subjects of any possession which 
happened to excite their cupidity, when their emissaries, as 
Juvenal facetiously assures us, lay hid among the sea weed 
to keep a look out for the best fish which should be caught ; 
and this not to buy, but to take it. 
V. 201. I set more value. 

Tunicam mihi malo lupina?, 
Quani si me toto laudet vicinia pago, 
Exigua ruris paucissima Farra secantem. 
Which I had thus translated. 



v. 211— 212. .Sat. xiv. Juvenal. 371 

In later days, the soldier worn with years, [210 
Who oft had hewn his way through Punic spears, 



I set more value on a Lupin's pod, 
Than if the village held me for a god, 
If I, to earn the claim of blessedness, 
Must lose one field, or mow one acre less. 

V. 209. As on the regal chair. The Romans at this time 
had little more than the ground on which their huts were built, 
till Tatius the chief of the Sabines entered into allegiance 
' offensive and defensive,' with Romulus. 

In the early ages of the Republic, the greatest men in the 
state, and those who had rendered it the largest services, felt 
themselves requited with a small possession in their native soil. 
Fabricius, after driving Pyrrhus from Italy, reserved for him- 
self only seven acres of the lands he had relieved from the 
enemy ; and the estate, settled upon the family of Curias 
Dentatus after vanquishing the Sabines, consisted of four ! 
Merces hcsc sanguinis atque laboris ! 

Interest as well as gratitude require of every country to 
maintain its retired soldiers, and to leave none to accuse her 
of ingratitude. We have noble establishments for that purpose, 
though necessarily limited in their application. A plan said to 
be partially adopted in France, of marking the miles all over the 
kingdom, by cottages built at the public expeuce, and given 
with an allotment of ground to the meritorious soldier, would 
at once discharge the debt, and place the individual in a res- 
ponsible situation. 

The Romans held agriculture (gratce munus aristce) in 
the highest reverence ; it was a perpetual theme with the 
Poets, nor has any done more honor to it than Juvenal in this 
and in many other passages. His 



S72 Sat. xiv. Juvenal. v. 213 — 226. 

Bearded fierce Pyrrhus and his barbarous hordes, 

And brav'd the points of his Molossian swords, 

Pension' d with scarce two acres, was content 215 

For all the wounds he bore —the blood he spent ! 

How great soe'er his merits, none accus'd 

His niggard country or her boon refus'd I 

One little glebe the father amply fed, 

And all the tribe within the cottage' bred, 220 

Four sturdy children — three his lawful heirs : 

The fourth their home, without their honor, shares. 

It fill'd them all, and left abundance still 

Their grown-up brothers from the plough to fill. 

Of all the crimes, that agitate the mind, 225 

None oftener skulks in muffled cloak behind, 



Vive bidentis amans et culti villicus horti 
is quite in the spirit of Xenophon's eulogy on Rural (Eco- 
nomy. 

Zfjioi asv 0aUjU,«<TTOV 8ox=» £JV«j si Tig sXsvQepog uvfywno; tj xrvj/xa 
tj tovtov Yjdiov x£xty)tm ij s7n^=Ksiav yi$ico Tiva. returns, evpyxsv 
gJJ.TOV /3iov. 

V. 225. Of all the crimes. A little paraphrased. — The 
original is 

Nee plura venena 

Miscuit, aut ferro grassatur scepius ullum 

Humana mentis vitium, quam s<zva cupido 

Indomiti census. 
What follows is worthy of the deepest attention ; and as 
immediately subjoined to a lesson so impressive, how beautiful 
the succeeding passage ! 

Vivite contenti casulis et collibus istis, fyc. 



v. 227 — 254. Sat. xiv. ju venal. 373 

Than lust of gain — none oftener drugs the bowl, — 
That deeply rooted passion of the soul ! 
For he, whom love of wealth hath made its prey, 
Demands it soon, and will not brook delay. 230 
What reverence of the laws, fear, honor, shame, 
The wretch that hastens to be rich can tame ? 

c Live in your cottage-homes content, and still 
1 With fond attachment view your native hill.' 
So spake th' Hernician or the Marsian sage 235 
In days of yore, in Latium's golden age. 
' Enough of bread your plough-share will supply 
' (Prospers the plough each rural deity, 
* By whose kind gift the harvest's golden store 
' To man was giv'n, and acorns priz'd no more). 
' Who wears his country shoes with honest pride, 
£ And turns the hail storm with inverted hide, 
4 Knows not the will to sin — 'tis purple leads 
6 (Be what it may !) the growth of foreign meads 
c To unrestrain'd desires, unhallow'd deeds !' 245 
The Patriarch's counsels these, in days of yore ! 
But now the father, vers'd in different lore, 
Rouses his son ere day-break from his bed— 
' What ! sleeping still ? those tomes of law unread ? 
e Up ! up ! write, read — or dost thou hate the pen, 

* And love the sword, haste thee to Lslius then : 250 

* Go ! — pay thy court to him— but, boy ! beware, 

* And let no comb disturb thy tangled hair — ■ 
' Let all be rough and negligent,— and make 

e Thy best appearance, for thy fortune's sake ! 



:} 



374 Sat. xiv. Juvenal. v. 255 — 264. 

c Gain'd thy commission, with destructive arm 255 
4 Thro* Moorish huts spread terror and alarm ; 
' The British forts to fire and sword consign, 
' Then, at threescore, an Eagle shall be thine ! 
' Or seem these toils too many and too great ? 
' Thy bowels do the clarions agitate ? 260 

* Buy what shall bring thee cent per cent again, 
' No kind of filthy merchandise disdain : 

6 Spices— or hides — they'll answer just as well — 

* The smell of lucre is a pleasant smell. 



V. 258. Then, at threescore, an eagle. I copy the sub- 
stance of a Note from Dusaulx — The time stated for the 
attainment of this object, to which Juvenal gives the epithet 
* locuple?,' is somewhat exaggerated, the Romans dispensing 
with military service at 55. Before Marius, the standard was 
not the Eagle particularly ; a great many different animals 
and birds were used for that purpose. 

This well-known emblem was of gold or silver, about the 
size of a pigeon, with wings extended, and sometimes holding 
a thunderbolt in its talons. The Romans regarded their 
eagles with something more of reverence than belongs to the 
attachment of a soldier to his standard. ' Lent — sequerentur 
Eomanas aves, propria legionum numina.' Tacit. Ann. 
1. ii. 17. 

V. 263. Spices or hides. This opinion so humorously 
delivered was adopted, it seems, by Vespasian : his son having 
found fault with the Emperor's ' urince vectigal,' was desired 
to smell a piece of coin, and to say whether he found it un- 
pleasant. As to the accident mentioned in the text, 



v. 265—286. Sat. xiv. Juvenal. 375 

e And boy ! forget not thou that noble line, 265 

' Worthy of Jove and all the powers divine, 

4 Have wealth one must, but how, none ask 

NOR CARE !■ 

O Apothegm divine, O adage rare ! 

'Tis the first rule that boys from grandams get, 

And girls learn long before their alphabet ! 270 

To parents, whom such sage advice may please, 
One might reply, methinks, in terms like these : 
Stay, thoughtless, stay ! why drive him on so fast, 
Teacher by Pupil will be soon surpast, 
And thou, (by Ajax as brave Telamon 275 

Or Peleus by Achilles) be outdone ! 
Allow for tender years — he'll soon begin — 

HlS MARROW IS NOT YET QUITE STEEP'd IN SIN ; 

Soon as his beard the tonsor's blade demands, 

Behold a perjur'd witness to thy hands ! 280 

His oath for every paltry gain he'll vend, 

Swear by the altar, to the statue bend, 

Or should his portion'd wife thy threshold tread, 

Her fate is fix'd, count her already dead S 

When the first slumbers o'er her senses steal, 285 

Grasping her throat, whose fingers shall she feel ? 



Si trrpidum solvunt tibi cornua ventrem, 
Cum lituis audita, - 
Ruperti refers his reader for a physical explanation of the 
phaenomenon (and I beg leave without consulting the authority 
to do the same) to Macrob. vii. 11. and Aulus Gellius, xix. 4, 



376 Sat. xiv. Juvenal. v. 237—308. 

You bade him seek o'er land and sea— a way 
More short and easy far before him lay ! 
'Gave I these counsels horrible ? did I 
c E'er hint such villanies as these ?'-— you cry ! 290 
Yes ! — with thyself the root and origin 
Of all the mind's perversions did begin. 
Whoe'er instils the Lust of Wealth be- 
times, 
By strict necessity exhorts to crimes. 
Whoe'er in fraud points out a road to gain, 295 
Throws on the coursers' necks the guiding rein, 
A gift once made, which none shall e'er revoke, 
Adieu the goal — whirls on the rapid spoke ! — 
Those paltry sins— that cramp'd delinquency, 
Who shall observe, that's measur'd out by thee ? 300 
Wide and more wide, the license, which they want, 
With kind indulgence to themselves they grant ! 

' Boy, he that lends his money is a fool, 
6 Or cares for poor relations' — in such school 
What will he, can he, learn, but how to cheat, 305 
And compass gain by plunder or deceit ? 
Gain ! which thou lov'st, with more devotion far, 
Than erst the Decii to their country bare, 



V. 307. With more devotion far. The Decii devoted 
themselves Diis Manibus terraque Parenti. See Satire viii. 
254. for the instance of Menoeceus, the Son of Creon. He 
merely accomplished the prediction of Tiresias, by casting 
himself from the walls of Thebes. The crop of soldiers which 
follows is too trite a story to be worth putting down. 



v. 309—321. Sat. xiv. Juvenal. 377 

With more devotion than Menceceus prov'd, 
(If Greece invent not,) to the Thebes he lov'd, 310 
In whose tooth-planted furrows legions grew, ^ 
And fought as if the blasts of battle blew, > 

Or scores of trumpeteters had risen too ! ) 

The sparks were thine — the blaze shall quickly roll 
Involving all around and mock control, 315 

Nor spare thy wretched self — within the den 
Thy growling cub shall his old keeper pen, 
Tear with strong talons and tremendous roar 
Those hands, his meal of blood which duly bore ! 

The astrologic seers perhaps foretell 320 

A long and happy life — my friend, 'tis well ! 



V. 314. The sparks were thine. 

Ergo ignem, cujus scintillas ipse dedisti 
Flagrantem late, et rapientem cuncta videbis. , 

So Demosthenes, 6 ya.^ to Tits^.tx Ttocfac^ouv ouro; rjv fuv 
<pvvTcuv xomcuv amoj. De Coron. 

V. 317. The growling cub. It is generally thought 
that Juvenal here makes some allusion to a story current at 
the time of a lion which suddenly attacked his keeper. 
(v X a $ l $ #^- a £ a ' T1 3 v <pv<rw ov Svvarai.) — * The master of the 
lion had exasperated his natural ferocity in order to render 
him more deserving the attention of the amphitheatre.' — 
(Gibbon). 

, As to the cervina senectus, which occurs just below, the 
longevity of the animal there alluded to is well known ; it 
is said to live 40 years, and its age is therefore mentioned 
relatively. 



378 Sat. xiv. Juvenal, v. 322 — 341. 

Till all that thread is spun, he'll never wait 
But snap it off at once and laugh at fate. 
Long since he frets — your kind and hopeful boy ; 
Thy stag-like age alone obstructs his joy. 32.5 

To sage Archigenes for safety fly, 
The dose of Mithridate make haste to buy 
Another rose dost thou expect to cull, 
Or from the tree another fig to pull ! 
Ne'er be without that medicated draught, 330 

Alike, by kings and fathers to be quaff'd 
Ere they sit down to dine! — methinks I shew 
More joys than Praetors' games, or plays bestow ! 
O ! would'st thou reckon what it costs to hold, 
In terror of thy life, those bags of gold ! 335 

(Which now since Mars has lost his helmet, I 
Would recommend to Castor's custody,) 
Oh, what are Cybele's or Flora's games, 
(Whatever shews, known by whatever names — ) 
Toils of the hand and terrors of the heart, 340 

Endur'd for gold, more mirth may well impart. 



V. 336. Which now since Mars. The Deity treated in 
this very unceremonious manner had probably lost his hat, in 
the time of Juvenal, in which he tells us that rogues had not 
only acquired sufficient boldness to peel Mercury and Nep- 
tune, but to melt down Jupiter whenever they could find him, 

Totum confiare Tonantem? 



y. 342— 351. Sat. xiv. Juvenal, 379 

The feet of those that tread th' extended line 

Walk on a soil secure, compar'd to thine ! 

O what a sight ! to see thee on the deck, 

'Midst every gale, and heedless of the wreck 345 

Of thy Corycian bark, whose desperate breast 

One master passion rules, to purchase best 

Thy spices and perfumes ! or on the shores 

Of Crete the opulent, collecting stores 

Of oily syrup, then thy voyage crowned 350 

With Jove's compatriot pitchers — homeward bound! 

He, whose misgiving feet in terror tread 

Yon trembling rope, does it for clothes and bread. 

A thousand talents or an hundred farms 

Pay for thy life's perpetual alarms ! 855 

Ship after ship the dangerous ocean braves, 
And half the human race is on the waves ! 



V. 342. The feet of those. From this passage I have 
excluded the Petaurus, a machine on the Roman stage, the 
effect of which was to carry the performer into the air ; the 
passage quoted from Manilius by Dusaulx, makes the exhi- 
bition ridiculous enough, un espece de Bascule qui elevoit 
rapidement I' un, tandisque V autre descendoit. 

Ad numeros etiam tile ciet cognata per artem 
Corpora, quce valido saliunt excussa Petauro 
Alternosque dent motus, elatus et ipse 
Nunc Jacet atque hujus casu suspenditur ille. 

This puts one in mind rather of a country fair; but, as 
Manilius lived in the reign of Augustus, he must be allowed 
to have known what he described. 



380 Sat. xiv. Juvenal. v. 358— 369. 

"Wherever gain, or hope of gain is found, 
Thither th' adventurous fleet is quickly bound : 
Carpathian turgid billows roll in vain, 360 

Nor can Getulian storms the rage restrain ; 
Calpe despis'd, they'll hear the sun-beams cool 
And hiss extinguish'd in th' Herculean pool ! 
And well it pays ! for see with bags how wide 
Return' d shalt thou discourse with wondrous pride, 
And tell of ocean's monsters rarely seen, \_S65 

And youths 'midst azure waves with tresses green ! 

Various the ravings which the mad befal ; 
Not one hallucination seizes all ; 



V. 367. And youths 'midst azure waves. This was well 
exemplified in the marvellous relations of the Roman soldiers, 
who had never before been at sea, till the dreadful night 
when almost the whole of the transports of Germanicus were 
exposed to a severe tempest on the German ocean, near the 
mouth of the Ems. — Ut quis e longinqua revenerat, miracula 
narrabant, vim turbinum, et inauditas volucres, monstra maris, 
ambiguas hominum ct belluarum formas. Tacit. Ann. ii. 24. 

V. 369. Not one hallucination. The story of Orestes, 
and his visitation by the Furies, is alluded to below. The 
particular passage in the Play of Euripides is perhaps the 
following : 

OP. w pyre§ ixetevju <rs, prj 'iti<rsis pot 

rag aiparwitovg xat 8§o,xovtw8£i$ Y.oga$ 
avtai yag avrai Tt\Y\<rtov QgujorKOvtri [xou. 

For the feats of the Son of Telamon under his distraction, see 
the Ajax of Sophocles. 



v. 370—386. Sat. xiv. Juvenal. 331 

This, whom the furies drove, with horrent hair 370 
Springs from his sister's arms—-* the Damons there,* 
While that is sure he hears Atrides roar, 
And flogs the bull more fiercely than before. 

Much he requires a keeper, tho' he fail 
His cloak, or chairs, or tables to assail, 375 

Who piles his bark with an enormous freight, 
And shares himself its fortunes desperate. 
a little legend and an image small 
Stampt on a scrap of gold the cause of all! 
The lightnings flash — clouds intercept the day, 380 
' Tis but a summer storm, get under weigh — 
* As for those livid streaks— they'll blow away ;' 
So cries the Master of the spice and corn — 
Infatuate ! haply ere another morn 
Those much-strain" d planks may burst, and while 
the wave 385 

Breaks o'er his head, and storms around him rave, 



V. 378. A little legend. 

Concisum argentum in titulos faciesque minutas ! 
And is this all? — In the succeeding lines the poet's powers 
of description are in full exercise. I scarcely know a passage 
which produces a more vivid and sensible impression of the 
image, than this which describes the merchant swimming for 
his life, struggling all the while not to lose his hold of the 
zone in which his money was contained ! His disregard of the 
weather is excellent. 

Nil color hie coeli, nil fascia nigra minatur. 



382 Sat xiv. Juvenal. v. 387 — 404. 

So long as 'midst the waters he can gasp, 

With teeth fast clench'd, lock'd in convulsive grasp, 

Still to his zone he clings ! — the man behold ! 

Of Tagus and Pactolus all the gold 390 

But yesterday had left dissatisfied ! 

Now, round his loins a scanty covering tied, 

A scrap of meat, a daubing of the storm, 

To move compassion — all his fortunes form ! 

The wealth, alas ! by toil and peril gain'd, 895 
By greater toils and perils is retain'd : 
The buckets rang'd, all night the servants stand 
In watchful ranks at Licinus* command, 
Alas, too rich ! his busts and statues keep, 
His ivory and his gold, their lord from sleep ! 400 
The tubs of' Cynics blaze not ! if they burst, 
One just as good will soon replace the first, 
Or molten lead will soon repair the flaw : — 
In such an house when Alexander saw 



V. 404. In such an house. He here reverts again to one 
of the heads of the 10th Satire; indeed to one of the parti- 
cular instances of infelicity quoted there, and indulges him- 
self in one more parting blow against the Goddess, whose 
divinity he for ever abjures. The versification of the whole 
passage seems to me to flow with uncommon freedom, a 
merit which Mr. Gibbon claims for the composition of Juvenal 
as an whole, — but in which few of his readers perhaps would 
be found to acquiesce. 

For a full account of Diogenes, I must refer the reader to 
Bayle, he will there read of this celebrated Cynic enough — 
more than enough. 



v. 405 — 428. Sat. xiv. Juvenal. SS5 

Its great inhabitant, then first he knew 405 

The world was right, and found the axiom true, 
That held him happier far who nought desir'd, 
Than whom the restless love of empire fir'd, 
Doom'd still to be a stranger to repose, 
And pay in perils for the life he chose. 410 
Where Prudence dwells, was fortune never known, 
By man a Goddess made, by man alone ! 
Myself, if any should consult, and say, 

* And what estate think'st thou sufficient, pray ?' 
Thus I'd reply — What Nature's wants require, 415 
When hungry, food — and when it freezes, fire. 
The garden-loving sage requir'd no more, 

Nor Socrates, that gentle sage before ; 
I do not cheat thee under Nature's name, 
Nature and real JVisdom are the same. 420 

* But these be high examples- — come, descend 

* From ancient themes, to Roman manners bend ; 

* Well, what the Twice seven rows enjoin, possess, 
' Thy largest wish, a sum so large may bless* — ■ 
What frowning, pouting still ?— come then take two f 
Two knights' estates — there's no contenting you— 
The wealth of Croesus — Persia's realms were vain, 
The gold of rich Narcissus thou'dst disdain ! 



V. 423. Well, what the twice seven rows. This allusion 
to the 14 seats of the amphitheatre reserved for the equestrian 
order has been explained in Satire in. The census of that 
order was 400 sestertia. 



384 Sat. xiv. Juvenal, v. 429 — 430. 

Ask what he would, who found old Claudius blind, 
Whose nod an Emperor's wife to death consign'd. 



V. 428. Tlie gold of rich Narcissus. This was a freedman 
of Claudius, and one of his greatest favorites. See Suetonius 
Claud. 28. Tacit. Ann. xi. 12. 26. 38. The English reader 
must often be surprised to find the prodigious influence exer- 
cised in the Roman state by the liherti or freedmen, who 
probably by the simple art of condescending to meanness, to 
which none but men of such an origin would submit, ruled 
the rulers of the world, and, what is more, the armies and 
generals they employed ! 

The same surprise did our ancestors conceive. Nee defuit 
Polycletus (a freedman of the same Emperor) sed hostibus 
irrisui fuit, apud quos flagranti etiam turn libertate nonduni 
cognita Libertorum potentia erat : Mirabaturque gUOD 

DUX ET EXERCITTJS TANTI BELLI CONFECTOR SERVI- 
TIIS OBEDIRENT. 



argument 



This Satire is rather levelled at a set of Barbarians., 
than at his own countrymen; he ridicules the Deities 
of Egypt, and relates a story, of the authenticity of which 
there is no reason whatever to doubt — this concluded, 
he passes by an easy transition to the gifts peculiarly bes- 
towed by nature on mankind, — sympathy, benevolence, 
and a readiness to mutual assistance, — and leaves the 
reader as much in admiration of the sensibility of his heart, 
as he had before been of the grandeur and elevation of his 
mind and the dignity of his morals. 



Juv. 2 B 



attre xv. 



W H o knows not that mad Egypt will adore 
All kinds of ugly monsters by the score ! 
This at the Crocodile's resentment quakes, 
And that adores the Ibis, gorg'd with snakes! 

V. 1. JVJio knows not. "That the ^Egyptians were mons- 
trous in their way of religion we have the testimony of 
Moses. Exod. 8. 26, ' Shall we sacrifice the abomination of 
the ^Egyptians before their eyes and will they not stone us? 7 " — 
Holyday. It signifies little, then, to add that the objects of 
their idolatry were plausible or ingeniously imagined ; that 
they worshipped the Ibis, (a bird much resembling the stork 
in appearance) because he ate the eggs of snakes ; and the 
crocodile because he devoured a few robbers who swam over 
the Nile to spoil the inhabitants — it may be reasonably thought 
that some of the credit of ancient iEgypt was derived from 
its use of the strange Character peculiar to them. ' Omne 
ignoium pro magnifico' It seems, however, quite absurd to 
make one sort of idolatry more respectable than another, 
although Cicero says, Ipsi Mi qui irridentur nullum belluam 
nisi ob aliquam utilitatem quam ex ea caperent consecrate- 
runt. 



v. 5 — 19* Sat. xv. Juvenal. 387 

Where the first radiant beam of morning rings 5 

On mutilated Memnon's magic strings, 

Where Thebes to ruin all her gates resigns, 

Of an huge Ape the golden Image shines ! 

To mongrel curs infatuate cities bow 

And Cats and Fishes share the frequent vow ! 10 

There leeks are sacred, there 'tis impious quite 

To wound an onion with forbidden bite ! 

Ye holy nations, in whose gardens rise 

A constant crop of earth-sprung deities, 

Nor sheep nor kid to slaughter ye consign, 15 

Meekly content — on human flesh to dine ! 

Come ! hear a tale which, had Ulysses tried 
Plac'd at the board, Alcinous beside, 
One half the party would have sworn he lied ; 



I 



V. 5. Where the first radiant learn. This famous statue 
was in ruins in Juvenal's time : Pausanias says it was broken 
by Cambyses to learn whence the sounds proceeded, — (for 
there is no more doubt of the miracle than of the liquefaction 
of the blood of St. Januarius. — ) Suck, as it was then, it 
remains, and Pocock has given two draughts of it in his 
Travels. An epigram and some inscriptions restored by Bro- 
tier (Tacit. 1. 382.) show that the sounds still issued from 
the statue in the reign of Domitian and Adrian, and in that 
of Tiberius it was visited by Germanicus. The respectable 
name of Strabo occurs among those whose evidence attests the 
singular fact recorded in this line and which of course must 
have been the effect of some extremely well arranged contriv- 
ance. 

V. IS, Plac'd at the board, Alcinous beside, Alcinous, 



388 Sat xv. Juvenal. v. 20—- 35. 

e What! is there none to cast this precious Knave, 20 
' Who talks of Cannibals with look so grave, 
e Into the sea at once ? — who for his pains 

* Merits the fell Charybdis which he feigns ? 

* I'd sooner trust his tales of Scylla far, 

4 The Azure rocks that in mid-ocean jar, 25 

' Tempests in bags — or touch'd by Circe's wand, 

* The swine Elpenor with his grunting band ! 

* What, does he think that our Phseacian plains 

* Nourish a people so devoid of brains V — 

Thus at Corcyra might some sober guest 30 

His disbelief and anger have exprest, 

While the bold Traveller spoke with looks serene 

Of fearful sights which none besides had seen. 

But to our tale, which never buskin'd muse 

Hath equaled yet, let none his faith refuse : .35 



the king of the Phaeacians, received Ulysses with great hospi- 
tality, and heard from him the wonders of his voyages ; among 
others, of the Symplegades, (so called from their apparent 
collision, or Cyanece from their color) two rocks situated at 
the entrance of the Euxine, and very frequently mentioned 
both by the Greek and Latin Poets. 

The country of the Phaeacians was Corfu or Corcyra, so 
celebrated in every period of the Grecian history and lately 
in our possession. It is with islands and with continents 
as with gardens and with fields. 

Ay§o$ A^m^sviSov ysvo^v vots, vvv Ss MevtrtTtov, 

Kai iraXtv e£ ifsgou fiyjtropM sig irsgov. 
Km ya.§ exstvo; £X siv ^ 7I ' or ' w£ro > Kai v&Kiv ouVoy 
Qisrou. a/Aj 5'oAw; 0TAEN02. aAA« TTXHS. 






v. B6 — 45. Sat, xv. Juvenal. 389 

A nation's crime ! a crime which thousands share ! 
At Coptus done, when Junius fill'd the chair. — 
From Pyrrha's times thro* each succeeding age, 
Evolve of tragic lore each moving page 3 
No muse has plung'd a nation into sin 40 

For stage effect — but let the tale begin. 

An antiquated grudge, a mortal hate, 
The Ombian people and the neighbouring state 
Of Tentyra, down to this day divides, 
Which lapse of years nor tends to heal nor hides. 45 

V. 37. At Coptus done. Coptus was a city of Upper 
Egypt, much resorted to as a medium of commerce between 
Arabia and Ethiopia. 

There were two consuls of the name of Junius, one the 
colleague of Domitian, the other of Adrian ; thirty-six years 
elapsed between the two : some doubts exist of the text, 
(certain MSS giving Juno, Juueo, Vineo) otherwise this is 
another date for determining not only the age of Juvenal, but 
the period of his banishment to Egypt. 

V. 43. The Ombian people and the, fyc. The reader may 
consult a long note in the translation of Dusaulx, which gives 
the substance of the opinions of Barthelemy, L'Archer, and 
Brotier, on this passage, concerning which a geographical 
difficulty has been started, founded on the words Inter Fini- 
timos, it appearing that these districts were not immediately 
neighbours, but thirty leagues distant. Were history, not 
poetry, at stake, it would be important perhaps to enter upon 
them ; as it is, the general fact is enough, and it is perhaps 
the earliest instance of a quarrel founded on a subject so 
fruitful iii after times, Religious Intolerance. 

Quod Numina Vicincrum 
Odit uterque Locus. 



390 Sat. xv. Juvenal. v. 46—73. 

High runs the feud — -and this the cause of all — . 

Each holds the others' gods t no gods at all. 

Each at his neighbours' scoffs, and deems his own 

To claim observance and to claim alone. 

The Ombians held a feast ; occasion meet 50 

To a vindictive foe to spoil their treat, 

And in the midst of revels to destroy 

An unsuspecting people's thoughtless joy ! 

The feast was spread along the public ways, 

On which a seventh day's sun oft sheds his rays, 53 

(For in excess, as i myself beheld, 

Not by Ganopus are these tribes excell'd:) 

O'er reeling drunkards and the stammering tongue, 

Victorious Pseans may be quickly sung ! 

Here thousands danc'd their swarthy piper round, 60 

In festive joy, with blooming chaplets crown'd ; 

There Sober Malice watch'd — first brawls began 

To kindle wrath, ere to the fight they ran : 

The furious skirmish soon, with shouts and blows 

By kicks and cuffs inflicted, fiercely glows. 65 

Nor swords nor spears were here-— yet on they 

rush'd, 
And many a comely feature soon was crush'd, 
Claw'd with the nails, or mangled with the stone, 
Thro' the torn flesh starts many a fractur'd bone. 
With blood the eyes were smear'd, the fists were 
dyed, 70 

Yet this mere children's play they soon deride : 
Crush'd was no corpse beneath their hoofs, and why 
Should thousands fight, if none are yet to die ? 



v. 74—97. Sat. xv. Juvenal. 391 

To glean the stones o'er all the field they ran, 

These gain'd, a fiercer onset soon began : 75 

Th' artillery of mobs in vollies flew, 

Inflicting blows and wounds of many an hue. 

Not like the mass of rock which loudly rung 

Full on the Trojan's hip, adroitly flung 

By Ajax, Turnus, or by Diomed ; 80 

Thin'd was that race, ere Homer's self was dead ! 

But such as powerless fingers like our own. 

In these degenerate ages, might have thrown, ! 

For now a puny nerveless breed is born, 

Of gods and heroes held in sovereign scorn ! 85 

But we digress— new subsidies arrive 
And stones in vain with swords and arrows strive, 
Press'd by his cruel foe, who near. the shade 
Of Tentyra's palms his settlements has made. 
The Ombian flies ! — one with excess of fear 90 
Tripp'd, fell, was seiz'd, — the savage foe was near— *■ 
The yelling crew to shreds their victim tore, 
And each his smoking piece in triumph bore : 
Soon with delight devour'd ! — no cauldrons heat. 
No spits transfix, the crude and quivering meat ! 95 
And here, it much delights me to record 
That the pure flame escap'd these scenes abhorr'd, 

V. 7S. Not like the mass of rock. 

SdJcum circumspicit ingens, 
Saxum antiquum, ingens campo quod forte jacebat 
Limes agro po situs, litem nt discerneret arms. 



392 Sat. xv. Juvenal, v. 98 — 114. 

That glorious booty, that ethereal prize, 
Which bold Prometheus pilfer'd from the skies : 
Great element ! the poet and his friend 100 

To thee their compliments rejoice to send ! 
Ne'er to this hour with greater relish fed, 
The savage wretch that first attack' d the dead, 
For question not what pleasure he could feel, 
Who broach'd the blood and first commenc'd the 
meal. — 105 

The last, amidst the remnant of the scene, 
Dabbled his hands, and lick'd his fingers clean ! 

Time was, the Vascons, as old tales relate, 
Thus fed, contended long with cruel fate. 
Want's sharpest pangs ! th' extremities of war, 1 10 
The long, long siege drove every scruple far : 
If when the herb was perish'd all, and dry, 
Their cattle gone, and e'en their enemy, 
Saw not their wasted limbs without a sigh ; 



i 



V. 108. Time was, the Vascons, as. Two or three in- 
stances are related in which the severest hardships, and the 
most pressing famine, scarcely brought the unhappy subjects 
of these difficulties to touch human flesh, notwithstanding 
they were strangers to that philosophy which teaches that life 
itself may be kept at too great a price. 

The Vascons were a people of Hispania Tarraconensis, 
(The Modern Catalonia), at the foot of the Pyrenees. Their 
town Calaguris (Calohorra). The siege above alluded to, 
by which they suffered so much, was carried on against them 
by Pompey and Metellus. 

Saguntus, (Morviedro) is the second instance : its story, 
besieged and taken by Hannibal, as it lately was by the 
French, is well known. 



v. 115 — 136. Sat. xv. Juvenal. 393 

If then upon each other's flesh they prey'd, 115 

Almost upon their own — 'twas famine bade. 

What man, what god his pardon could forbear, 

To pangs like these, to miseries so rare ? 

For whom, their very victims' ghosts would plead, 

And be the first to justify the deed. 120 

We, by sage Zeno's precepts better taught, 

Know life itself may be too dearly bought, 

But whence could the fierce Spaniard, in the age 

Of old Metellus, con the stoic page ? 

Now through the world a brilliant light has shone, 

Shed by that other Athens and our own. [125 

The very Britons leave the toils of war, 

And taught by Gaul are studious of the bar ; 

E'en distant Thule's solitary coast, 

Will have ere long its Rhetoric school to boast. 130 

These were a loyal race ! of hardships more, 

With equal constancy Saguntus bore, 

And each shall claim excuse — more bloody far, 

Fell iEgypt ! art thou, than the altars are, 

Of fierce Mceotis : — that infernal rite, 135 

Of Tauris kills indeed, but not in spite, 

V. 1 23. But whence could the fierce Spaniard. 
Cantaber sera doraitus catena. — Hor. 

The most warlike people of antient Spain, who inhabited 
the provinces of Biscay, the Asturias, and Navarre. 

V. 135. Of fierce Mceotis. At the Tauric Chersonese or 
peninsula, the worship of Diana was attended with human 
sacrifices ; the story of Iphigenia is here principally in contem- 
plation. 



394 Sat. xv. Juvenal. v. 137 — 156. 

Nor does inveterate Malice edge the knife, 
Which frantic Zeal has rais'd 'gainst human life ! 
What arms to crimes so monstrous can compel 
This brutish tribe, what tales have they to tell ?. 140 
What hostile bands to hem their ramparts in, 
And prompt them to inexpiable sin ? 
By crimes less human, or by rites more vile, 
The rising flood of fertilising Nile 
Could they have stay'd — a dastard people view, 145 
Which paddles on the stream in light canoe 
And wields in waveless seas its feeble oar, 
More fierce than Cimbria's sons, than Britain's more, 
Than the ferocious swarms, the Tartar hordes, 
Which Scythia's frightful wilderness affords ! 150 
5 Tis vain to punish, where 'tis vain to teach ! 
Alas ! what lessons can the Savage reach, 
With whom mere vengeance makes a stronger plea 
Than Famine, War, and dire Necessity ! 
That Nature planted Pity in the breast 155 

Let her distinctive boon, the Tear, attest ! 



V. 146. Which paddles on the stream. These canoes or 
boats (earthen ships, as Holiday calls them) were the miserable 
resource of a people under the temptation to avail themselves 
of the advantage of a great river, and living in a country 
almost destitute of wood. 

V. 155. That Nature planted, Sfc. This is beyond 

question, that passage in Juvenal which gives the best 

impressionof his heart. Destitute of the smallest vestige 

of the declamatory style, it appears as easy and as 



v. 157—168. Sat. xv. Juvenal. 395 

The sorrows of a friend, she bids bewail, 

She bids us listen to the captive's tale : 

Or when the much-wrong'd orphan meets the view, 

CompelPd by cruel fraud in courts to sue, 160 

She draws compassion for a face so fair, 

Those tear-dim' d eyes, that soft and glossy hair. 

'Tis Nature, Nature, prompts us when we sigh 

For some fair girl whose funeral passes by, 

Or for the Pyre too small whene'er we see 165 

Earth closing over lovely infancy ! 

What man is he, whose hands the sacred light, 

May bear unblam'd in Ceres' mystic rite, 



natural as the most tender passages in Euripides and Virgil, nor 
is it, I think, possible to deny to its author on the least attentive 
consideration, a large participation of the best qualities of the 
heart. 

V. l66\ Earth closing over, SfC. The bodies of infants 
under seven months old were buried, not burnt. Hominem 
priusquam genito dente cremari, mos gentium non est. Du- 
saulx well observes that the custom of destroying the animal 
remains by fire, though of such familiar mention among the 
Greek and Roman authors, was yet not so antient as that of 
burial. 

Our custom of burningthe body, says Pliny, took its origin 
from our foreign wars, wherein we burnt the slain to save them 
from insult. The funeral pile continued to the time of Theo- 
dosius. 

Virgil's beautiful allusion to the death of infants must be 
fast in the memory of most readers : 



396 Sat. xv. Juvenal. v. 169—192, 

The sorrows of his kind that proudly spurns 
And from his neighbour's grief unpitying turns ? 1 70 
Strange to the herd s to us alone was given, 
This precious sense, the kindest gift of heaven, 
And while for things divine receptive powers, 
Wisdom and skill for noblest arts are ours, 
To us alone, compassion was consign'd, 175 

Denied the prone, earth-contemplating kind ! 

The common parent, when the world began, 
To both gave life, but mind alone to man— - 
That ties of love reciprocal might lead, 
To mutual offices in mutual need, 180 

To walk together on life's common way, 
And give to-morrow what we ask to-day ! 
That mutual love and mutual aid might draw 
The race dispers'd and bind by social law, 
That men might quit the forest and the grove 1 85 
Nor o'er the wild in lawless wanderings rove. 
But join the thresholds of their homes, that so 
Sound sleep from mutual confidence might grow. 

When fall'n and fainting from a mighty wound, 
A dear compatriot bleeds upon the ground, 190 
'Tis ours ! the glorious privilege ! to fly, 
And snatch him from the foe or with him die ! 



Continuo auditte voces, vagiius et ingens 
Infantiemque animae Jlentes in limine primo : 
Qaos dulcis vilcB exortes et ab ubere raptos, 
Abstulit atra dies etfunere mersit acerbo ! 



v. 193—206. Sat, xv. Juvenal* S97 

To rouse and rally at the self-same note s 
Of the hoarse trumpet's c war denouncing' throat. 
Share the same toils, man the same walls and 
towers, 195 

And close the barriers with one key — are ours. 

And wherefore ours ? of discord less we find s 
'Midst the suspicious brood of serpent kind ; 
His kindred specks behold the pard will spare \ 
Behold the Lion race — and none are there* 200 
Who slay their weaker kind, no grove resounds 
While the fierce boar, his feebler comrade wounds* 
Een India's rabid Tygers will agree, 
And Bears together dwell in harmony ! 

'Twas a small evil first to point the dart 205 
And edge the falchion with destructive art, 

V. 199- His kindred specks. 
So Otway : 

Amidst the herd the Leopard knows his kind. 
The Tiger preys not on the Tiger brood. 
Man only is the common foe of man I 



The hunting tribes of air and earth, 
Respect the brethren of their birth ; 
Nature, who loves the claim of kind, 
Less cruel chase to each assign'd : 
The Falcon pois'd on soaring wing, 
Watches the wild duck by the spring, 
The slow hound wakes the fox's lair, 
The Grey-hound presses on the hare, &c. 

Rokeby, Canto 3. 



398 Sat. xv. Juvenal. v. 207 — 218* 

(Tho' earlier workmen only knew to bend 
The crooked share j nor did their skill extend, 
From murderous spades, and rakes, to mould the 

blade 
And find in war a profitable trade) : 210 

5 Twas a small evil — here a race behold, 
Whose fury dies not when the foe is cold ! 
Which finds in human muscles, bones, and blood, 
A new repast, a pleasant sort of food ! 
What had he said, or whither had he flown 215 
Had sage Pythagoras these*monsters known ? 
Who deem'd all flesh to savour of his kind. 
Nor in all herbs a safe repast could find* 



Argument 



The subject of this Satire is the insolence of the Ro- 
man Military, of which Juvenal enumerates some of the 
privileges in his manner ; there can be little doubt that the 
subject was highly susceptible of being treated throughout 
in the same way, but the piece is probably imperfect ; 
some, indeed, have concluded that it was the production 
of an inferior, or written when the faculties of the poet 
were long past their meridian : I am not acquainted with 
any sufficient evidence of either. According to Ruperti, it 
is wanting in the most ancient MSS, in others it is not 
the last in order, but the last but one. 



attre xvi. 



Ihe boons that ramparts, mounds, and camps, 

bestow, 
And all th' immunities from arms that flow, 
Ah who can tell ? Be mine a lucky star, 
At the camp gate a novice yet in war, 
And tnat distinction shall await me more 5 

Than if a note from Venus' self I bore 
To blustering Mars ; 'twould serve my fortunes less, 
Were Juno's self my honor'd patroness ! 



V. 5. And that distinction, fyc. Holyday justly remarks 
that these lines claim to be considered among the internal 
evidence that the piece is from the pen of Juvenal. Nothing 
can be more in his way than to say, that good luck was better 
than a letter of introduction to Mars from Venus, 

Quam si nos Veneris commendat epistola Marti, 
Et Samia genetrix quce dekctatur arena. 



v. 9 — SO. Sat xvi. Juvenal. 401 

And first of smaller benefits, we learn 
A soldier's blow, no gownsman dare return : 10 
Who'd show the judge and hope to be forgiven 
Those bleeding sockets whence his teeth were driven? 
Of livid bumps and bruises who'd complain 
And live to bear a livid bruise again ? 
Or with one doubtful eye, the praetor's chair 15 
Attend, and tell his tale of suffering there ? 

To sift that too suspicious tale of thine, 
A judge in greaves and helmet they assign ! 
Thus the camp statute runs, * beyond the trench 
No soldier pleads before the civil bench 9 20 

c Granted — yet mindful of their sacred trust 
* Centurion-judges will no doubt be just — 
' Of chastisement the ruffian shall not fail, 
c I'll tell the truth, and truth shall still prevail' — 
What ! when five thousand ruffians more, at hand, 
On that one ruffian's side have sworn to stand? [25 
A soldier's outrage is a grievous curse, 
Yet is a cohort's vengeance something worse ! 
If all the nails of all those hoofs conspire, 
And thou hast still two legs, and those entire, 30 



V. 17- To sift, that too suspicious tale. This privilege, 
which of course was the foundation of every species of vio- 
lence of the camp, claiming cognizance of the offences of its 
own ^members, was established by Camillus, in order to 
remove the pretence of his soldiers, being absent on civil 
business. 

V. 29. If all the nails of all, fyc. The ponderous and 
JUV, 2 C 



402 Sat. xvi. Juvenal. v. 31— 41, 

The soul of stout Vagellius it should need 
In such a court thy dangerous cause to plead ! 
And where's the Pylades, the faithful friend 
That shall thy journey to the camp attend ?— «. 
Dry up thy tears, see those tremendous shoes ! 33 
Nor ask a service which e'en fools refuse. 

At length, ' who saw him knock you down, Sir ?' 

cries 
The frowning judge ; — ye gods ! and whp replies ? 
"Who sees those hard clench'd fists, and yet will" 

try 
To pluck up nerve and boldly venture — I 40 1 
At once outbeards our bearded ancestry ! 



iron-bound shoes of the Roman soldiery form, as the reader 
will recollect, one of the miseries of which Umbritius, in de- 
parting from Rome, betrays a tender recollection. 

' The Caliga/ says Flolyday, ' was a thick soal without an 
upper leather tied to the foot with thongs, somewhat like 
wooden pattens. It afterwards signified merely a shoe, ac- 
cording to that of St. Jerom, Epist. 47. cap. 3. speaking of 
an immodest maid thai went in creaking shoes, ' Caliga quo- 
que ambulantis nigella ac nitens, stridore ad sejuvenes vocat.' 
The original caliga, according to the same industrious inter- 
preter, ' came at last to be used by countrymen and citizens, 
(which sense I have given to it in the last line of the 3d Satire) 
it Was then made of wood and leather, with many nails under- 
neath, that they might last in long journies. Sometimes the 
Emperors gave thesn & largess of nails — donativum clavarium,' 
— (perhaps, however, this was only a name, like pin money.) 
The nails were commonly of iron or brass, but the soldiers of 
Antiochus were shod with gold — treading, says Justin, that 
under foot, for which men fight with iron. 



v. 42 — 57. Sat. xvi. Juvenal. 403 

To swear away a townsman's life, a score 
Of perjur'd witnesses you'll find, or more, 
Ere one on desperate perils prompt to rush, 
And put a soldier* s honor to the blush ! 45 

Yet far more solid gains than these are known 
The boisterous soldier's meed and his alone. 
Suppose, some powerful knave refuse to yield, 
Seiz'd by main force th' hereditary field, 
Or dare to move the sacred stone away, 50 
Where thy first fruits at every harvest lay.— 
Suppose his hand and seal some rogue deny, 
And to retain our due, most stoutly lie, 
We poor Plebeians wait the lingering year 
Before a court will meet, our tale to hear : 55 

A thousand tedious avenues are past, 
A thousand checks athwart our way are cast, 



V. 50. Or dare to move. 

— — Convallem ruris aviti 
Improhus, out campum mihi si vicinus adcmit • 
Et sacrum effodit , medio de limite saxum, 
Quod mea cum vetido, coluit puis annua libo. 
a passage, as Holyday observes, beautiful audi worthy of 
Juvenal ! — It alludes to the important religious ceremonies 
with which the ancients worshipped the God Terminus : in 
short, it was fixing a most important point, the sacredness of 
the division of land, on a religious foundation : hence the 
removing the landmark or boundary stone was, as the reader 
recollects, the subject of a curse in the Jewish Common- 
wealth, 



404 Sat. xvi. Juvenal. v. 58 — 75. 

It takes an hour to lay the cushions strait- — 
Then, ere Cseditius loose his cloak we wait 
Another hour; then Fuscus steps aside, 60 

And still our patience, not our cause, is tried. 
For those whom greaves and leathern belts surround, 
A time and place are in a moment found. 
To hearing prompt their slightest cause consign'd 
The law's long trailing drag-chain left behind ! 65 

The belted soldier by especial rights, 
His father living, his own will indites ; 
For whatsoe'er of wealth the Sabre gains, 
From * lands and tenements' apart remains. 
And thus Coranus, who still earns his pay 70 

And lays it by, — as frugal ensigns may, 
By his old sire is coax'd, who hopes to bear, 
All drivelling as he is, the name of heir ! 
The road to wealth his honest toils prepar'd, 
And well-tried valor brought its just reward. 75 



V. 58. It takes an hour, fee. It is impossible to deny that 
this passage is much iu the style of Juvenal : on the contrary, 
few of his strokes of pleasantry are better aimed than 

— Jam facundo ponente Laeemas 

Cteditio, et Fusco jam micturiente, fyc. 

and the hand of the master may also be discerned in that 
excellent allusion to the procrastinating spirit of the laws, a 
few lines below. 

Nee res atteritur longo svfflamim litis. 



v. 76 — 79. Sat. xvi. Juvenal. 403 

And 'tis the general's interest and concern. 
The well-deservings of his men to learn, 
His ready ear, to noble deeds to lend, 
And on the brave the frequent badge suspend. 



V. 7$- -And 'tis the General's, 3fc. This conclusion is flat 
and spiritless, and as all the Satires invaribly end well, I 
think the defect here an argument against the piece being 
perfect. 



FINIS. 



406 



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